Monday, October 30, 2017

Progress on The Loon Lake Quilt

Detail Lark and Iris

At Quilt Camp in October, I made some progress on The Loon Lake Quilt.  I think this one is going to take me a good 25 years before I actually get it all finished!

Detail Lark with Thread-painting.



 Detail Irises

Detail Iris

 Detail Iris

 
Here's the whole block in context.
This includes the new color choices for some of the grasses.

 Here's a shot of the back of the Larks and Irises block.  You can see from this side just how much stitching I did that weekend--especially on the lower lark.    Some of it was just the applique to make sure everything stays stitched down.  The rest was the thread-painting.

 The amended loons now have striped necks.    Much better!
I didn't do much thread-painting on the loons because it just wouldn't be seen.
Rest assured that the pieces are sufficiently appliqued down.

 
I bought this as a kit with the pattern and fabrics in 2007 (or so).  I think one of the reasons I've been so slow to finish it is that I just have not been happy with some of the fabric choices that were included in the kit.  Hence, my reluctance to commit and actually finish it. 

This time, I "fixed" the loon blocks.  I wanted to see stripes on their necks, but that's not what was included in the kit.  It came with this speckled fabric ---  All this time, I've been trying to figure out what's not quite working on this quilt, and why I can't quite finish it ... This was a major sticking point for me.  But I'm working through it!

Here's the BEFORE picture of the loon and the previous choice for grasses.
Don't you like the neck stripes better on the shot further up?  I do!

I also sapped out some of the grasses in the irises and larks block.  Some of that was my fault -- I substituted something from my own stash that didn't quite work here.

After I got home and put it back up on the design wall, I realized I had not appliqued the landscape in the background.  I'll have to go back and finish that part some day.  Not a big deal--I just need to commit!

See the other Loon Lake posts here, tracking my progress with this quilt.

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Mande's Blue & Orange Star Quilt on the Design Wall

 Mande's Blue and Orange Star Quilt on the Design Wall

At quilt camp earlier in October, I had enough blocks ready to layout the star pattern for Mande's Blue and Orange Star quilt. I was pleasantly surprised!  It was helpful to lay it out, and have the Quilt Ladies take a gander.  These women are trained to look at quilt blocks., and layouts.  If something is out of place, they'll catch it!  One of them told me about one of the orange blocks that should be turned another direction.  When I finally saw it, she was right!  Do you see it in the photo above?

Last week, I squared up the blocks.  This wkd, I laid them out again at home.  I've been swapping out some blocks for others, moving them around for the best layout.   I have to let this sit for a while longer, before I start sewing them together.

Mande's Blue and Orange Star Quilt on the Design Wall at home
Getting closer to the final layout.

Sometimes it helps to take a picture.  If you see it on a small screen, you can literally get enough distance to "see the forest for the trees."  Suddenly, it gels, and you can see the whole picture--it becomes a quilt top--something whole unto itself, and not just the individual blocks.  

Blue Alpaca Woven Shawl

Blue Alpaca Woven Shawl

It's finally cold enough to where I wanted something a little extra to keep me warm.  This was just the thing today!


I wove this up last winter with Janet's Favorite Twill.  It was really meant to be an experiment -- The first warp on the "new-to-me" Kessenich 4-shaft floor loom.

The alpaca yarn was given to me by someone at work after she retired.  I think she'd gotten it from an Aunt of hers who had passed away.  I think she heard me complaining about the cheap scratchy acrylic yarns the craft ladies were using as not being something I wanted to work with for weaving.  Her ears perked up, and she knew I would appreciate "the good stuff."  Thank you, Nancy Schmidt.  This is wonderful yarn!

 Detail of the closure / clasp.  This pin is from Scotland.
Here you can really see the warp strings, too.  I used a maroon cotton, as we were setting up to do rugs last fall.  It looks a little "rough" and rustic here, but I do like the effect.  

Next time, I will use a natural colored wool carpet warp with similar alpaca yarn in browns.  That should blend in better.   


I came across this picture from last winter when it was still on the loom.  I had forgotten how well this particular style of shuttle worked so very well for weaving this cloth, as I was able to get almost a whole skein of yarn on the shuttle.


Detail of the weave structure : Janet's Favorite Twill


Detail of the binding on one end.    Very clean and tidy.
This worked really well, and would also work for hemming rugs.

On the other end, I tied off the warp strings and left them hanging long.  When I did the wet-finishing, I probably went too far -- but then this was all experimental, remember?  The end with the loose warp strings hanging off as fringe worked really well to felt that end of the shawl--the strings were beating the fabric into submission.  It's a really nice thick felt on that end! 

I will probably trim off the strings, and bind them under a black ribbon, to make it more like the other side.  

As a result the felted end is much shorter than the other end, that didn't get the extra massage work.
Here' you can see the difference in the widths end for end.  It also shows the difference in the felting and not so felted.

A note about the weave structure (for future reference, when I want to recreate what Ive done here) :

 
Treadling Notes for Janet's Favorite Twill
I had to do some adapting to make it work with the straight draw set-up on my loom.
Straight Draw means, basically, that the warp strings run conscutively through the heddles of each of 4 shafts.  
Shaft 1 Heddle 1 String 1
Shaft 2 Heddle 1 String 2
Shaft 3 Heddle 1 String 3
Shaft 4 Heddle 1 String 4

Repeat for subsequent sets :
Shaft 1 Heddle 2 String 5
Shaft 2 Heddle 2 String 6
Shaft 3 Heddle 2 String 7
Shaft 4 Heddle 2 String 8 

I also have my treadles set up in a "walking" configuration. This means that :
Treadle 1 lifts Shaft (1+3)
Treadle 2 lifts Shaft 1
Treadle 3 lifts Shaft 2
Treadle 4 Lifts Shaft 3
Treadle 5 lifts Shaft 4
Treadle 6 lifts Shafts (2+4)

Basically, the outside peddles allow you to do a common weave with every other string up or down--It's like you'd be walking, alternating the outside treadles to make common cloth.  Pedal 1 lifts Shafts 1 + 3 at the same time.  Pedal 6 lifts shafts 2 + 4 at the same time.

The 4 treadles in the middle lift each of the 4 shafts individually.  I tend to think of these as a set all on their own : 1-2-3-4 (rather than treadles 2-3-4-5 out of 6 total.)

Depending on how you combine the treadles, you have quite a variety of weaving patterns available.  The treadle pattern listed on the cards above makes up Janet's Favorite Twill.


For me, it was easier to write the card to read from th bottom up, as that tracked how the cloth was woven in front of me.   It was also easier to think of each line as a pass of the shuttle through the open strings. 

1st pass :  Treadles 1 + 2 which lift shafts 1 + 2 (actually treadles 2 + 3)
2nd pass : Treadle 6 (2 + 4) which lifts shafts 2 + 4
3rd pass : Treadles 2 + 3  which lifts shafts 2 + 3 (actually treadles 3 + 4)
4th pass : Treadle 1(1+3) which lifts shafts 1 + 3
5th pass : Treadles  3 + 4 which lifts shafts 3 + 4 (actually treadles 4 + 5)
6th pass : Treadle 6 (2 + 4) which lifts shafts 2 + 4
7th pass : Treadles 1 + 4  which lift shafts 1 + 4  (actually treadles 2 + 5)

When I was weaving, I used a bead system to help me keep track of where I was in the treadling pattern.   I was amazed at how brilliantly this weaving hack worked to keep me on track, and prevent loosing my place!

Who's Janet?  Janet Dawson teaches the Floor Loom Weaving online class at Craftsy, where she shares no less than 37 weaving draft patterns, of which this #13. 


Cozy & warm!

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Missives from Quilt Camp Oct 2017

My big project for the weekend was to finish up the quilt blocks for Mande's Blue and Orange Star Quilt.  I was able to borrow someoen's design wall to see how it would look.  This needs 1 more row across the top and along one side ... 

 Donna (one of my table partner's from years past) was also working on a similar strippy star quilt.  Same technique, but different.
Really neat to see how each of our Stars turned out!

The other big project I was working on was to chip away at the Loon Lake Quilt, so I spend some time thread-painting the birds and irises.

 Me with my table partner,  Laura Ramseier.  October 2017.
I swear : We did not coordinate our outfits before hand!

Laura's box of scraps.  All these were cut to the same size to make it easy to use for the same project.  Laura sorted them by color/pattern/fabric, as she needed multiples to complete a single block.  
I am still in awe of how Laura makes her quilting magic.  Her scrap quilts are gorgeous!

I've been thinking I need to start getting a handle on my own scraps ...  some day!

 
Since this was the 10th anniversary of Quilting Friends Quilt Retreat, we all brought chicken-themed gifts to honor Laura Ramseier, our host and organizer.  This amazing wool appliqued wall hanging was made by Jolene Stadtler and Ruth Mathwig.

 
Here's the whole gang : Quilting Friends
October 2017 at Lake Lucerne in Neshkoro, WI

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Dizzing Luscious Wool & Silk FIber

I few weeks ago, I purchased a nice bundle of mill end wool and  silk.  The eBay listing said it was clean, but needed to be carded.   It's actually carded pretty well.  Just letting it "breathe" and poof up, then al ittle dizzing seems to be all it needs to get it ready for spinning.

So what is dizzing, you ask?
It's where you pull the fiber through a small hole (I'm using a big coconut button this time) and do some pre-drafting into roving to make it easier to spin into yarn.   Think of the roving as kind of a fat loose snake of fiber.  Very easy to pull apart at this stage because it has no spin in it (That comes later at the spinning wheel).


See how those snakes of roving form once it's pulled through the button hole?


Push and pull ...

Push and pull ...

Push and pull.
This fiber has a beautiful luster and shine.  I am really looking forward to spinning it, and then eventually weaving with it.

When I have a goodly amount of newly-drafted roving, and it naturally breaks off, I wind it into a ball which keeps it nice and tidy, not tangled until I really am ready to spin it.


Sophie, my Newfie Fiber Hound looks on admiringly.  She loves chewing on bits of fiber.  Not quite the fiber hound I had in mind when I got her.  Just makes me love her all the more!  ;-)  I think she's so interested in it because I'm playing with it, so she should be able to do the same--in her doggie mind anyway.

Ok -- I couldn't resist this one.  I am a huge fan of The Goo Goo Dolls.
Here's Dizzy :



Apple Bag for Market

 I made this nifty little market bag based on one I had seen at the Quilting Friends Quilt Retreat a few weeks ago.  Bev always brings "Bonnie Good" apples from her tree.  This year, she brought them in a cute market bag made with pin stripe denim and red bandana fabric.  I loved it, and decided I had to make one of my own.  Even got to use it this weekend to carry a gallon of Cider. 'Tis the Season!

And yes--Bev used to work at Oshkosh  B'Gosh when it was local, so the denim was left over from that long-ago era.  I had to buy some new denim, as I did not have this in my stash.  ;-)



It has a very nice shape with the darts in the corners.  I have to say I did not follow the instructions exactly, as I could not make sense of how she handled the straps, so I just put binding on that part.

Cheers!