Sunday, March 17, 2024

Octopus (So Far): Embrace Your Curves - EAA Quilt Challenge 2024

I was trying hard to make this idea fit the March Madness Quilt Challenge with the Roman Glass fabric, but it just wasn't quite working ...  Since this challenge only required the curves (as a motif or technique), and no particular fabric, I had a few more options to make this one come to life.

My husband wanted it -- otherwise, I don't think I'd want to spend so much time with "all those suckers." 

Don't you think that button fabric looks like Octopus suckers? 

I thought the hand-dyed green background looks like seaweed, or deep ocean.

This is just the fused stage.  There will be a border, thread-painting, and quilting ...

More to come ...  


Sunday, March 10, 2024

Heavy Black and Red Wool Coverlet


Yes -- another coverlet!    A little eye candy while I'm busy planning the next coverlet (Nothing to show as yet ...)

 


This one seems to have a satin binding.   It's very heavy and sturdy for a twin bed size.  A little stiffer than I like, but the density makes it warmer, too.

 

 

For the record, here is the documentation from the eBay listing:








 

Item number:126166929030

Sold by: tr3atsGalore (17608)

Item specifics

Condition   Pre-owned: An item that has been used or worn previously. 
Pattern: Woven
Character: Antique Folk Art
Size: 9” X 49”
Color: Red & Black
Fill Material: Heavy Wool/ No Fill
Material: Wool
Set Includes: Coverlet
Item Length 89”
Brand Jacquard
Type: Coverlet
Care Instructions
A True Antique
Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
Style
Antique
Time Period Manufactured: 1850-1899
Production Technique: Hand Woven & Trimmed
Item Width 49”


Saturday, March 09, 2024

Replacing the canvas aprons on the 8-Shaft Floor Loom

New Canvas Aprons on the Big Loom

Although I gave the big loom a good refurbishing when it arrived last summer, I had not replaced the canvas aprons on the respective warp and cloth beams.   They looked clean and sturdy enough at the time.  But when I pulled off the high class-low maintenance throw, there was a definite musty / funky smell.  There were some yellow spots at the top of the canvas:

 

Ew!  

Time to swap out that old canvas for new ones!

I took a small square as a sample and stopped in at the local Joann's Fabric to pick up some canvas.  They had some on sale, but it was much lighter weight than what was on the loom.  It felt more like muslin with some sizing on it.  And nothing in white/natural.  So I decided to keep looking.  After checking the archives of some of the FaceBook weaving groups, people have used artist canvas by the yard or they bought thicker painter's tarps for this purpose.

I opted for a 12 mil. painter's tarp.  I paid about $21 for a 4 ft x 12 ft piece of canvas.  This appears to be about what was on it before ...

So I cut new pieces of canvas, the same size as as the old pieces, using the old aprons as templates.  I cut holes and slits where the old ones were ...  It was good to have the old pieces as models / patterns.  It would have been a much more difficult job without that original to look at.

The hardest part was threading the strings back through the canvas and sticks.  I figured out that I had to ream some good holes through the canvas with an awl, and then tape the ends of the strings -- like a shoelace to get them through.  I did not replace those strings.  

Good as new!

And soon, the sectional warp will be fully installed and ready to go!  Stay tuned!

Sunday, March 03, 2024

Antique Wandering Vine Coverlet in Red and Cream


Antique Wandering Vine Coverlet

I saw this lovely coverlet for sale on ebay last fall.  Its a Wandering Vine pattern, also known as Snail Trail or Cat's Paw, among many other names.  This was a very popular pattern for home weavers because it was so much fun to see the pattern emerge.  

Two summers (more than a year) ago, it seemed like there were a lot of these on the market.  There were so many of them at the time, I wanted to avoid them ...  but now that I'm thinking about making one myself, they look a lot more interesting ... and barely any on the market for sale now.

Gay McGeary did a nice overview of this "Cat Track and Dog Paw" pattern in the following presentation at the Coverlet College in 2015.  I wish I could have heard her speak, as the notes only say so much ...   There are 2 antique coverlets featured in the presentation -- both of them very similar to this one.

Here are some of the other names this patterns goes by:

  • Cat Track & Snail Trail
  • Cats Paw Blooming Vine Old Girl
  • Dog Tracks Flowering Vine Old Roads
  • Rattlesnakes Running Vine Snowballs
  • Rattlesnakes Skin Trailing Vine Soldier Return
  • Rattlesnakes Trail Winding Vine Winding Roadhttp://www.amazon.com/
  • Snakes Skin Vine Around the
  • Stump
  • Snakes Trail Ocean Wave

Names per Lou Tate in her book Kentucky Coverlets

There are 2 ways to make these "woven as drawn in" and "rose fashion."  I'm still not quite sure what that means yet, or how they differ, but I think it has to do with the treadling.  That is something I will have to figure out as I develop the planning documents for making one of my own ...

Yup-- This will be the next coverlet, now that the Mountain Cucumber Coverlet is finished.  ;-)

 

   

Detail of border

Saturday, March 02, 2024

Pretty Ribbons and Trim from Echoes of the Past

Pretty Ribbon

The Echoes of the Past annual trade show happened here in Oshkosh last weekend.  You can buy old trading beads,  fancy ribbons, leather goods, fur trading goods, tin-smithed goods ...  It's kind of a neat gathering simulating colonial times.

I bought some fancy ribbons.  The lady who sells them said she got them when she was living in Hong Kong years ago, and she and her husband could bring suitcases full on their trips back to the US.  Prices were very reasonable at $2.50 and $3.50 / yard.

Most of these ribbons will be B-day gifts for my friend, Janna, who also appreciates these little pretties.

The wider one will likely become a shoulder strap for a new bag / purse.  Some things are easier to purchase than to make!

Sunday, February 25, 2024

The Mountain Cucumber Coverlet is Complete!

The Mountain Cucumber Coverlet is complete!

This is the wet-finished version.  It's a little bit bluer than the one I posted last week, as the yarns have bloomed after being washed. 

The weaving draft (pattern) came from page144 of Carol Strickler's American Woven Coverlets book (c1987).  She calls it Governor's Garden.

After about 1 year of planning and nearly a year of weaving 3 hours on Sundays, this epic project has finally come to an end.  I admit, I was sad to finish the weaving part, but I was thrilled to see all the panels come together, and the worms matched up!


Since April of 2023, I have been able to weave for about 3 hours (which amounted to a 15-inch block) on most Sundays.  It's been good exercise, and a welcome meditation.

Warp: 10/2 American Maid Cotton

Weft: indigo blue wool for pattern weft and 20/2 American Maid cotton for tabby 

Reed: 12-dent, threaded 2 per dent

Here is the log of my weekly progress weaving each week:

 

Half-way through Panel #4, I ran out of warp, so there was a break around Christmas while I re-grouped and re-warped and got things set up again to continue weaving on Panel 5.  Rather than a setback, that turned out to be a good thing, as it solved some tension problems with the warp. 

I also kept track of bobbin changes, so I'd know how many bobbins to wind per panel, and how far I could weave with a white cotton or a blue wool bobbin:


Any problems that came up were solve-able. 

Sewing the panels together was easier than I thought.  I was afraid I'd have more trouble making matching the patterns from panel to panel, but that turned out to be easier than expected.  I did not hand stitch the panels together, line by line.  In the weaving, I planned for about 1/2 inch overlap between the panels (about 12 threads).  That method worked out well for the towels I made last year.

I went down 1 side with a zigzag stitch, covering the selvedge edge.  On the back side, I used a straight stitch to sew down the selvedge on the reverse side.  I may still go over that with a zigzag as well.  We shall see.

 

The circles are the cucumber slices, if you haven't made that connection yet.   This photo is from the "summer" side, with more white than blue.

 

Here's the blue side with a shot of the worms, which were so much fun to weave.

It all looks great so far!   The seams essentially disappeared once it was wet-finished.

I wonder how much it will shrink with the wet-finishing?  Maybe 3 panels would have been enough for our double bed?

I had planned for the blocks to be 12 inches square (12-dent read with 24 warp strings per inch), but they came out 12x15 inches, so the cucumbers are a little long, cut on the bias, so to speak.  I'm not sure what else I could have done to make it square -- I was using a tabby thread that was already half the size of the warp strings and beating as hard as I dared.   The octagons are elongated, too.  It's ok -- I'm still happy with the outcome.

The measurements

Each panel is about 22 inches wide after wet-finishing.  On the loom, under tension, it was about 25 inches with a temple.  Off loom, each panel was about 23-1/2 inches wide.

Each panel was about 105 inches long as measured on the loom.  After wet-finishing and hems, they are about 96 inches long. 

Dimensions BEFORE wet-finishing:  93 inches wide x 105 in. long

AFTER wet finishing: 88 in. wide x 96 in. long


As a reminder, here is the antique coverlet (for study purposes) I purchased in the same/similar pattern:

Here are all the previous posts on this project:

Progress on the Mountain Cucumber Coverlet Project (Feb 18, 2024)

Just Like Starting Over ... (Dec. 2, 2023)

Weaving the Vines on The Mountain Cucumber Coverlet Video (Oct. 14, 2023)

Progress Notes on The Mountain Cucumber Coverlet (Aug. 28, 2023)

Half Way There on The Mountain Cucumber Coverlet (Aug. 27, 2023)

Getting Ready to Weave Again: The Odyssey Coverlet Project (aka Mountain Cucumber): Part 3 - Test Blocks  (April 10, 2023)

Getting Ready to Weave Again: The Odyssey Coverlet Project (aka Mountain Cucumber): Part 1 (Apr. 9, 2023)

Warp Run(Feb 6, 2023)

Antique Mountain Cucumber Coverlet - Purchased (Feb 5, 2023)

Weaving the Numbers (Jan. 22, 2023)

Planning a Woven Coverlet: Governor's Garden aka Mountain Cucumber (Nov. 22, 2022)

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Progress on the Mountain Cucumber Coverlet Project


 

Mountain Cucumber Coverlet (4 Panels) - not yet wet-finished, which means it looks kind of flat because the fibers have not bloomed yet.

The panels in this photo are running side-to-side, rather than up-and-down as they would be on a bed.

Please excuse the sunlight towards the bottom of the photo.

Last Sunday was the last day of weaving on the colossal Mountain Cucumber Coverlet Project.  Sigh!

I have thoroughly enjoyed this project --  I see another coverlet in my future!   I waited a week to cut the last panel off the loom.  This weekend, I lined up the panels and see how consistent my weaving was -- How well the panels match up.  According to my notes and record keeping, it looks like I stayed on target -- more or less.  I can't believe how well this is turning out!

Lessons Learned:

  • Instead of loading the entire 16-yard warp at once, it might make more sense to do half of it, then tie onto what's left as a dummy warp, pull through the reed and heddles and start over.  I think that will solve some tension problems over such a long warp.
  • Make sure there's is sufficient extra warp to test and practice the pattern. 
  • Prepare enough bobbins for a single panel at the start of that panel.
  • Use the adding  machine tape to stay on track, but only unroll a few inches at a time.  Don't let it roll up with the fabric or there could be some distortion and tension problems.


  • A Scottish spurtle (or any stick would work) is a useful tool for pulling the nylon fishing line used at the edges for floating selvedges.  Using nylon fishing line was a game changer for straight edges! 

 

  • I calculated some overlap when the panels came together -- 12 warp strings, or about 1/2 inch. The easiest way to line things up was to lay it all out on the bed, with a cutting matt underneath.  Then I used a seam guage, marked at the 1/2-inch mark.  I measured the bottom panel, and laid the top panel at the 1/2-inch mark, matching the patterns along the way.

  •  Even if things were the slightest bit off, it was easy enough to "fudge" it and make them match close enough.  The hard cutting matt underneath made it easy to insert the safety pins without catching the quilts on the bed.
  • Then I stitched a zigzag down the blue (top) side of the panels, and a straight stitch on the white (back side).  Though I might go over the back side with a zigzag, too.

 

   

Here's a detail shot of the seam joining panels. 

 

 

 

I am hoping the seams essentially disappear once it's all wet-finished.   

 

Here it is laying on the bed, while I was still working on it.  You can see, I still have the labels marking which panel is which (bottom center). 

It was much easier to sew the panels than it is working on a bed-size quilt because it's only 1 layer. 


 

Here it is hanging on the banister -- again, not yet wet-finished.  I was so pleased with how it came together--how well the worms matched across the panels-- I just wanted to bask in it. 

You'll have to wait a few more days for the final photo.  I did the wet-finishing today, but it wasn't quite dry by the time the sun set ...  Soon!

Sunday, February 11, 2024

Crumb Cake Quilt as You Go: Planning a New Project for Quilt Camp in October

 I saw the Sewing Channel's Crumb Cake Quilt as You Go Quilt recently.  She did that great tutorial on Cathedral Windows a while back, so I trust her tutorials and judgement.

She found a color pallet on Pinterest and matched the basic colors with 30 fat quarters from her stash.  I have a lot of stash, but I don't want to spend that much time choosing colors and textures.

Please bear with me: If I don't make some notes for plans, I forget what I had in mind!

I am planning to use the following fat quarter bundle:

Laundry Basket Quilts Fat Quarter Fabric Bundle Edyta Sitar Fabric Reds Teals Neutrals Collection Andover Fabric Set of 29 Fabrics LBQ from Fabric Sweets on Etsy.

I think this collection will make a nice patchwork-y looking quilt.  And I only need to choose 1 more coordinating fat quarter to complete the set.

I have done some quilt-as-you-go projects in the past, and they've been a bit unwieldy as far as cutting the batting and backing the required sizes, so we'll see how this one goes.

 I hope to have everything cut and ready for assembly BEFORE quilt camp next fall.  ;-)

Monday, January 29, 2024

The Kiss: LSQG 2024 March Madness Challenge Quilt

It's finished!  The March Madness Challenge for the Lakeside Quilt Guild.

 


I decided to make a wall hanging modeled after Klimt's The Kiss.

This the fabric we were given.  Kaffe Fasset's Roman Glass, like a mosaic.


Here are the instructions.   In short, we can make anything, any size, as long as the given fabric is a focal point of the piece.  It can't be backing or borders, but must be a central part of the work.

Although I tossed around a couple of ideas (1 involving an octopus, another involving an abstract landscape), this is the one that came to the surface and wanted to be made at this point in time.

Here is my pattern.  Because Klimt's The Kiss is old enough to be in the public domain, there are lots of line drawings/ coloring pages of this painting out there.  So I picked one, enlarged it, and made it my pattern.

Klimt is also a favorite of quilters because of his use of textures and patterns in his paintings.

Here is is with everything fused, no stitches yet.  I am amazed at how recognizable it is, even using different colors and fabrics from the original.

The first piece I put in was the Roman Glass for her dress.  

All the other fabrics came out of my stash and scrap pile -- That was the self-imposed rule I wanted to follow.  The "big blue building" for his robe came from Laura R.  I'm much more partial to blue than gold anyway.  ;-)   I think her hair was a bandana that Sophie got from the groomer -- I washed it.  

I did have to purchase more Wunder Under fusible, but that's ok.   

 

The next step was to stitch everything down.  First I did a zigzag stitch with invisible thread - clear and smoke.  then I went back over some edges with a satin stitch.  Here are all the threads I used.  I'm so glad I bought that set of embroidery threads -- I've used them a lot.  I'm glad there are so many colors. 

 

Here's the threadwork from the back side.  The heavier lines are the satin stitch edges. 

 

Detail of The Kiss. 

I used a scrap of Dream Wool for the batting, so it puffs up nicely, giving some definition and body to the bodies.

I am so pleased with how this came out!  This has long been one of my favorite artworks.

I might even turn this into a postcard next time around!