Mending Broken Warp Strings

I am not very happy with this alpaca/silk mix for warp.  It's just not as strong as I hoped it would be. As far as tension, the warp is relatively loose, and I'm being very gentle beating the weft lines in -- so much so that the circles in the pattern are becoming elongated.  Perhaps I'll have to start beating this by hand -- like a tapestry?

The photo above shows the T-pins in place to hold a repair warp thread.  I'm getting very good at it by now!   On the last pass (not shown here) through the pattern repeat, I broke 3 strings.  I finally removed 2 of the rods in the angel wings at the back.  That seems to be helping now.  2 remain ...

Even though I'm babying it, still the warp strings pull apart ... one at a time. Usually it's down by the weaving.  I can see it happening before it completely breaks.  I guess that's a plus in that I can follow it back so I know what reed slot and heddle needs to be re-threaded.

This last round I had to stop 3 times to fix broken warp strings. I'm getting smart about it now.

I use a chip clip to mark my place in the treadle pattern beads -- Sucks to lose my place in that series!  [Been there; Done that!]  It's a 72-step treadle pattern, and the mere action of moving the beater forward to work on the heddles can disturb the separation in the beads that usually marks my place in the sequence. 

I use another chip clip to mark the heddle to be re-threaded.  That makes it so much easier to see once I move to the back of the loom.  And it helps to keep the other heddles out of the way.

I've also learned that I can't weave after work. I need to be fresh enough to take on fixing a broken warp string -- and I need natural light to see.  The task lamp isn't enough for that operation after dark.   Sometimes, I'll even use one of those headlamps when I have to get into the guts of the machine to re-run a repair warp thread.

I have so many little canisters hanging off the back of the loom now ...  I thought I had plenty, but then I had to get some more at Hobby Lobby the other day.  It will take extra time to unwind these strings when I need to advance the warp. 

I'm only about half-way through the first scarf.  I may not even attempt the second one. 

I'm still not quite ready to cut it off and start over though.  At what point will I be so frustrated and disgusted that I just cut the line and move on to some other project?

Farmer's Wife Blocks 22 Corn & Beans - 80 Single Wedding Star - 98 Waterwheel

 

Block 22 - Corn & Beans

 

No paper-piecing this week!  Hurray!  

With this block, I finally learned how to make those no-waste flying geese blocks.  I'd seen those tutorials before, but it just never made sense to me.  Turns out I was missing the part where you add the 2nd side of the sky.  Now it makes a lit more sense. 

 

In my planning, I wanted to make the inner-most green triangles purple.  But where the tutorial had us start, I thought I was working on the rows of double green triangles.  Once I had that inner quad done, I didn't want to go back and re-work with the purple triangles.  This is good enough for me! 

 Block 80 - Single Wedding Star 

Nothing much to say about this one, but that I like how it has some motion to it, with the star spinning.     I love that mottled leafy green print, too.  And this was the last of the purple.  

 Block 98 - Waterwheel

 If I were to do this one over, I think I'd have chosen a lighter blue for those corner blocks.

By my calculations, I think I have about 60 blocks now.  That's about halfway to the 111 total needed. 

 

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 20.

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.

 

Heart of Winter Quilt Top

Heart of Winter Quilt Top

Finished this quilt top over the weekend.  It was a kit at Going to Pieces Quilt Shop in Appleton last September I couldn't resist the chickadees, and the metallic fabrics.

 

 

Heart of Winter - detail 

I was thinking about also adding a red cardinal, as that is also an abiding sign of winter in Wisconsin.  I even found some bird fabric that included cardinals and other birds in spring.  But as I thought about it, I decided that I did not need to add an actual bird.  It would be enough to add a pop of color in this otherwise while, silver, gold and gray quilt.  So there it is ...  a single square simulating a cardinal in winter.

After my mom died last summer, someone at work gave me a meme about the sight of a cardinal being the spirit of the dearly departed. Yeah ok--I'll go along with that. 

 

The pattern is Eloquent by Jenice Belling.    The Quilt Shop made a few small changes, and I added the red square.

I bought a batt and backing fabric this weekend, so hopefully, I will have it done and ready to hang before winter is over!  Yes--destined to be a wall hanging.  I still need a plan as to WHAT to quilt on it. 

Farmer's Wife Blocks 28 Duck & Ducklings - 40 Friendship - 64 Peace & Plenty

 
 

Block 64 - Peace & Plenty 

 This was the last one done today.  No paper piecing-- so there's a triumph!

The new thing this lesson was a tutorial for a dog-eared (3-piece) triangle.  It was a little tricky measuring 11/16 squares.  Eventually, I figured out it was just past the 5/8 mark on my rulers.  

Using up some of my favorite green and blue batiks.

Block 28 - Duck & Ducklings

I don't really have anything to say about this one, except that I love the batiks involved. ;-)

 

Block 40 - Friendship Block

This one came out a little too small.  I trimmed off some bits that I should have left.  It was tricky ding the math to get the right sized squares.  My old brain is a little rusty with fractions, but eventually I figured out that 11/16 is just a little past 5/8.

I think this one might be a candidate for the re-do pile.  With a different center focus and possibly blue or green accent triangles.

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 19.

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.

Farmer's Wife Blocks - 8 Bouquet - 23 Country Farm - 24 Country Path

 Block 8 - Bouquet

All the blocks this week were paper-pieced.  And  for the most part, it actually went well.  Only a minimum of ripping  our stitches and do-overs. It seems like the Handmade Karma duo might have been getting tired of the project at this point too?  We're almost half-way through.  I say that because some of the paper-piecing templates were missing the seam allowances. 

Block 23 - Country Farm

 Nothing to say about this one.  The green in the photos looks a little funky.

Trust me: It looks better in real life.

3 different greens this week.  6 different blues and 2 creams.

 

 Block 24 - Country Path

 The blocks this week took more than 4 hours to complete.  Yikes!  I know: I'm thinking it too.  Why in the world did I embark on this project if it takes up so much time every week?  Well-- That may be exactly why I took it on.  The pandemic continues so our options for concerts or going places is still pretty limited.  Meanwhile, I have "free" time to fill, and something like this makes me feel productive.  In the end, I'll have a quilt to show for it!

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 18.

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.

 

Winter Blues Quilt is Complete

Finished this gorgeous quilt in time to still use it this winter!

I did a simple 2-inch grid pattern, using the walking foot.

 

Here's a photo of my set-up for quilting on a domestic sewing machine.

I have a quilt lift system that takes some of the weight of the quilt off the table, reducing drag and friction on the bed of the sewing machine.  

It helps, but it's still a very physical task.  

Here's a detail of the clamps used to hold onto the quilt.  They are easy to open and re-clamp.

They are suspended from a rod over my sewing area with bungie cords, so they give and take as I work.   Read more about it here: 

Free-Motion Quilt Suspension System and Other Pain-Free Quilting Modifications

I used a Brilliant Blues  jelly roll and the Fuzzy Logic pattern comes from Brenda Henning's Strip Therapy booklet.  It's become my go-to pattern, because it is so easy and so satisfying.

I had to look up the instructions for joining the ends of a binding again.   This one simple task is still troublesome, even after so many years of quilting.   Last time, I found this great video that simplified it -- no odd angles or math.   No over-thinking with this method.   Here's the written version of this method. 

 

The label in one of the corners.

I have anew printer now, and I'm not sure I can print to fabric anymore.  That's something I'll have to experiment with -- including what fabric sheets, or treatment will work best with the type of printer I have now. 

Since I used a silk batt in this quilt, I had to look up the care and washing instructions.  The last task of making a quilt is washing it.  I'm convinced it brings the stitches, fabric, and batting together as one cohesive unit:  It makes them a team!   In this video from Hobbs, the manufacturer of the silk batt I used says to wash on delicate, limiting agitation and NO HOT water.  Then you can put in it the dryer on delicate or air fluff. 

Farmer's Wife Blocks - 11 Broken Dishes - 16 Calico Puzzle - 21 Contrary Wife

  Block 11 - Broken Dishes

I think this one is my favorite this week. 

All scrap fabrics.  I decided to use the HST method where you sew around the edges of 2 larger squares right-sides-together, and then cut a criss-cross through the middle, yielding 4 smaller HSTs.  That seemed the most efficient way to get all those HSTs done this afternoon.  The resulting HSTs were over-sized, so I needed to trim them down.  That also cut down on the wonk factor.  None of them were stretched out or abused -- Yes, I'm getting better at pressing those sensitive bias edges.

Those greens came from some of the very first quilts I made over 15 years ago.

 

Block 16 - Calico Puzzle

The blocks this week only took a little over 2 hours.  I felt like I got a break -- no paper piecing!   And it was a welcome break from the news this week.

 

Block 21 - Contrary Wife

Not so sure about the color combos in this one.  Those purples in the corners are not quite right.  I think the neutral cream would have worked better than the silver snow.  This one may be a candidate for a re-do some day.  But not today.

 

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 17.

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.

 

Farmer's Wife Blocks 15 Buzzard's Roost - 31 Evening Star - 87 Star Gardener

Block 31 - Evening Star

 My favorite block from this week's set.  I used some leftover fabric from another project and the long leftover pine fabric.  I love chickadees, so why not feature them on The Farmer's Wife quilt?

This was relatively easy to construct with the flying geese tutorial.  [No paper piecing!]

 Block 87 - Star Gardener 

This one looks like a royal pain-in-the-pattootie to do with so many little pieces, but it wasn't really all that bad -- No paper piecing!

Slow and steady and it came together.  Choose the color layout.  Then start with the flying geese blocks, then the half-square triangles.  Don't mash them too hard at the pressing stage-- and it's done!

Block 15 - Buzzard's Roost

Here's the ugly duckling in the set.  This block looks gangly and awkward to start with.  Just doesn't quite come together right.  I did my best to make it look better with the choice of colors -- the blue batik dresses it up nicely, but it's still sort of like lipstick on a pig, so to speak.  You can tell there were a few mishaps with this one -- I put it down to my frustration with paper-piecing.  The fabrics I cut didn't quite fill the spaces they were intended to, so I pieced in some extra fill-in fabric, hence the extra seams, and a tuck.  I was running out of time on the weekend (My Christmas vacation) and didn't care about it enough to fix it properly.   Just wasn't feeling it with this one.  Enough said ...

 

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 16.

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.

 

2 More Quilts Sandwiched and Pin-Basted and Taking Stock of UFOs

I got the Winter Blues Quilt sandwiched and pin-basted on New Year's Eve Day.  I can't wait to get this one finished and ready to use.  I LOVE the colors!

I was hoping to have this one pin basted back at Thanksgiving when I had a week off of work, but the backing fabric hadn't been delivered in time.  Mail deliveries have been slow due to Covid, and political machinations.  It was worth the wait -- snowflakes.

My first thought for batting was to use the fat wool batt we got from The Courtney Woolen Mill (Appleton, WI) back in September.  But when I opened it up, there was a lot of debris and vegetable matter in it.  More than I was comfortable enclosing in a quilt to be used on our beds.  I should have opened it in the parking lot before I left, but I didn't ever think it would be an issue. I've never had a problem with wool batts like that before-- and I've used about 5 or 6 so far.   I think I'm going to take it back there and ask for an exchange for a cleaner batt.   

I was very disappointed and had to completely change my plans.  Using a fat batt like that requires a different technique -- enveloping a quilt is a different process.

I looked at what other batts I had in my stash:

• Hobbs 80/20 Cotton - Not appropriate for a winter quilt who's purpose was warmth and a higher R-value.
  
• Hobbs Wool - A good option (blessedly CLEAN compared to the Courtney batt).  Not quite as thick, but it needed some time to relax out the folds from being bound up in the bag it came in.  It was better the next day. 
  
• Hobbs Silk - YES!  This is the one I eventually used on the Winter Blues Quilt.  It's creases fell out with a little time in the dryer.  It's supposed to be nice and warm, but light, which means, I should be able to stitch it.  I won't have to tie it as was the original plan.
•  
  

 The Copper Canyon Quilt

While I was at it, I sandwiched a second quilt.  This is the same pattern as the Winter Blues above, using a jelly roll with 2-1/2 inch strips in coordinating colors.  I love this pattern so much, it's becoming my signature go-to pattern for patchwork. 

I used the Hobbs wool batt on this one. It looks a little wrinkled still.  I decided to add more pins at the corners of the purple sashing to help hold it in place until I can get to stitching it all down.  

 

Here's a detail shot of the pin basting. 

 

Here's a shot of the back side where you can catch a glimpse of how the quilting might look.

I think I'm going to be be very happy with this Hobbs Wool batt. 

 

 In case you are wondering: Is my dining room table really that big?

No -- My husband brings up a 4-8 foot sheet of plywood that gets laid over the table specially for the task of sandwiching quilts. Then I top that with a vinyl backed table cloth large enough to cover it all.  This protects from slivers and snags, and allows the fabrics to slide easier on the plastic during the process.

 Here's another one I sandwiched back on the summer -- maybe around the 4th of July?  Still waiting to be quilted and finished.

I think this was also Hobbs wool batting.

And The Ugly Stashbusting Quilt, made when my mom was still around last spring. Not such a priority -- until someone gets sick and needs support during treatment.

There are other quilts that still need to be sandwiched:

 

Holly's Christmas Quilt 

I need to get an appropriate batt for this one.  Cotton isn't warm in winter. Maybe a twin-size wool batt?

 

 

The Twilight Lagoon Quilt

I made this scrap quilt while my mom was dying last summer.   I don't have the heart to look at it now.  Give it some time.  I'll get back to it some day ... with time and distance and perspective.

 

 

Loon Lake

Still needs some work picking the stabilizer out of the back (though I'm starting to think that might not be necessary in a wall quilt), adding dragonflies, and choosing an appropriate batting since it will likely be hanging on a wall part of the time. I need a batt that won't sag while it hangs.  Will wool work for that?   [Leah Day says yes.]  I am not a fan of Warm n Natural as there is zero loft to it.  I want the stitching to stand out, and puff the layers and give some definition, but not too thick.  WnN won't do that.

 

 

 There are multiple other quilts still on the pile already sandwiched and needing to be quilted, or otherwise finished:

 

The Morningstar Quilt

Made to celebrate my 20th wedding anniversary (now it's 2 years later!)  The center star is all done, but I stalled on quilting the black backgrounds on surrounding the center star.  It just feels like I spent hours on those backgrounds, and I don't seem tobe  making much progress.  And it's hard to push such a large quilt around -- very physical work.

 

 

Hollyhocks Around the Barn

This one has been waiting for more than 10 years!  I have since added a nice chicken wire border.   I keep toying with the idea of possibly including some yoyos for added dimension. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black Jack Quilt Top

A Log Cabin quilt kit from Connecting Threads years ago.  I've been stuck as to WHAT to quilt on this one.

 

 

Oceanica made with In the Beginning fabrics designed by Julie Pashkis.  I love her folksy / fairy tale / storytelling style.  I got this years ago as a kit and worked it up in 2011.  Apparently this fabric and the kit were quite rare.  I saw just the unfinished panel selling on esty for for $60!  Sometimes, I'm at a loss as to HOW to quilt something.  I guess I'd just trace around the main characters here ...

This concludes the inventory of quilt sandwiches on my To Do pile.  Not quite as bad as I thought!  Since my husband set up a magic quilt lift system for me, I really have no excuse NOT to work on these.  Except that it's very physical work pushing around these quilts and it can't be done in the summer when it's too hot.  And I haven't been to the YMCA to lift weights since last March.  I am week, but we'll see how it goes.  Baby steps!  I am motivated to work on the Winter Blues quilt.  

Now get cracking!

I explained the process of using basting boards in these previous posts:

From the Deli : Board Basting a Quilt Sandwich

From the Deli : Board Basting a Quilt Sandwich Revisited