Woven Woolen Yardage: Blue and Green Diamond Twill

 

 

Blue and Green Diamond Twill - Wool

 

At long last, here is the blue and green diamond twill I was weaving in wool.  I finished weaving it a few weeks ago, but didn't want to take it off the loom until I had a new warp to put on ...  I finally did the wet finishing this weekend.

It's been very difficult to get a good photo of it.  I had to wait for daylight with actual sunlight, not just overcast gray skies.

It was 26 inches wide off the loom, BEFORE wet finishing. 

The photo above gives an idea of how thin the yarns were as I was weaving.  I'm not sure if it had some kind of stabilizer on it or not?  It was definitely all-natural wool yarn, complete with some vegetable matter straight from the farm.  Even now, there's a little grass left in it.

AFTER wet finishing, it is now 24-3/4 inches wide off the loom. and almost 3 yards long.

Now the threads have plumped up (fulled) and it feels much more lush, and is no longer see-through.

 

This is probably the truest representation of the colors.

I used fishing line along both selvedge edges to help give support for a straighter edge.  This worked VERY well, and I plan to use this technique in future.  The edges are nice and straight!  

The yellow threads above are what I used to separate the warp when I began weaving.  I haven't taken them out yet.

My original intention was to weave a diamond twill fabric to recover the seat on my weaving stool. However, I found some scraps of green velvet from another project that is working well enough on the stool.  At least I like the color better than the yellow velvet.   

I'll save this yardage for another suitable project ...

 

Farmer's Wife Quilt is Complete

Remember this quilt?  This was my pandemic project. I was doing 1 or 2 blocks a week during the pandemic, and got it all together in about 9 months.  It's a dizzyingly busy quilt.  There's a lot going on here.

I had Pat Schneider quilt this on her long-arm with a computerized block pattern with some swirls and slight feathers.  It was too big and heavy for me to do myself on my little domestic sewing machine at home.  If it was ever going to be finished, it had to go to a long-armer, and I knew Pat would do a good job!

Pattern: some feathers and some swirls with an olive-y green thread that disappears at a distance.  We thought whatever quilting pattern / motif would get lost amid all the blocks anyway.

Speaking of green -- see that green batik above?  I am looking for more fabric in that lively green. It's hard to find.

Batting: Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly.  I always like the way this batt crinkles up after washing and makes a new quilt look antique-y.

The backing is an extra wide Stonehenge gradient in blues and greens.  It's prettier than the front in it's own way.  When I need some clam and quiet, I can flip it over and relish this side.

The only thing left to do is the label.

Sweetness and Light Tea Pot

Cute Little Blue and Gold Tea Pot

I bought this little teapot from FB Marketplace a few weeks ago.  It's cute, and the curlique raised texture makes me happy.  Although it felt good, it was sometimes difficult to see ...  Not enough contrast for my aging eyes, so I made a run to the local hardware store for a gold enamel marker:

 

and added some glitz in the form of enamel metallic gold paint.  I was originally looking for gilding wax, but they didn't have any, so I opted for the gold paint marker instead.  That worked better than expected, and gives it a hand-drawn feel -- because it was hand drawn by my own hand.  

It feels like this little tea pot will finally be allowed to shine her little heart out -- as she was meant to do.

Yes-- We drink tea at my house, so she will be used.

This is how she looked when she arrived.   Lovely, but definitely subtle.

Izzy's Garden: Working on the EAA Raffle Quilt

Izzy's Garden Quilt Top for the EAA Raffle Quilt in July

We got the top sewed together after a full day's work at Open Sew on Saturday.

I'm on the Lakeside Quilt Guild Committee charged with making the raffle quilt for the EAA Quilt Show in late July.  The pattern is called Izzy's Garden (from APQ April 2020).  A few weeks ago, we met to cut the fabrics, and laid out them out.    Today at Open Sew, the 4 of us put the pieces together, with 2 sewers, and 2 pinners / pressers.

Laura and Janice at the sewing machines.

 

Linda and I (not pictured) were pinning and pressing all day. 

 

This must have been mid-afternoon.  Once we had the strips together, the rest of it went pretty fast.

We strategically pressed the seams so that we could nest them when we put the strips together.  Nested seams are the best thing since sliced bread! That techniques helps your pieces meet where they should: Accurate piecing.

 

Here's we're starting to lay them out -- Happy to see that the hexagons are lining up as expected.

Janice's daughter Jenny brought our lunches (Thank you!).  She helped us in the layout phase a few weeks ago, so that we had good placement of the blocks for colors and textures.   That's one of her gifts as a quilter.

The hardest part was lining up the trapezoids so that they would make a straight line.  YES-- There are no Y-seams in this quilt!  So we spent the morning pinning those pieces together.  I was sure we'd be done by noon today with the 4 of us (Laura Ramseier, Janice Potraz, and Linda ??) working on it, but it took us until 4:30 this afternoon to get it all together.

It's a pretty quilt top -- reminds me of summer gardens and ponds and lily pads.   I would not mind winning this quilt myself!

Bright Idea - Set the Weaving Reed as a Ruler

 

I stumbled on a series of YouTube vids from The Curmudgeon Weaves, not realizing until later than he had been here in Oshkosh for the Echoes of the Past Trade Show back in February last year.  I spoke with the other weaver there, but missed him.    Maybe I'll catch him this year?

In this video, he demos a great idea for turning a reed into a measuring stick.  This seems like such an incredible no-brainer.  It's already measured out -- all you have to do is add colored yarn to mark the inches and 5-inch demarcations.  

I'm planning to do this will all my reeds now!

 

Here is my 12-dent reed which I'll be using for the epic Coverlet project coming up.

The red yarn marks the center of the reed.

White yarn marks each inch -- 12 slots per inch on a 12-dent reed.

Green yarn at the 5-inch mark.

 

This is how it looks seated in the beater.  It's subtle and practical.

 

I finished the next step in preparing to weave again ... Cut off the last project, and counted heddles for the Great Coverlet project.  Turns out, I have enough heddles, and did not have to buy any new ones.  

I only had to add a handful of heddles to each shaft.   Not as bad as I thought it might be ...

The next task will be to sley the reed with 2 thread per slot, but that is for some other weekend.

Cathedral Windows Revisited

 

Here's a follow-up post to the Cathedral Windows Revisited from a few weeks ago.  I finished one of the blocks --almost entirely by machine.  Although the prep work in preparing the white background squares seemed to take longer than you'd expect, actually sewing down the bias edges over the colored patches did NOT take long at all.  I was amazed!

You can't really tell from this angle, but there's a little bit of stuffing behind each of the colored patches. I used some left-over quilt batting -- about 2 teaspoons worth!

  Here's a shot of the colred patches laid out, but not yet sewn down. 

 

I'm taking you backwards and deconstructing the white background squares.

Here is the background grid without the colored patches.  The colored bits cover the edge-joined seems shown above. 

 

Here's a close-up of one of the satin-stitched edge-joined seems. I am still working on the perfect technique for this -- stitch length and width.   

 

Here it is from the back. 

 

Once the patches are sewn in, it makes a nice orange peel pattern on the back. 

The little bit of stuffing on the front side helps add the definition.

Did I mention that at this point, the block is finished--done and quilted. There is not batting in this kind of quilt.

 

Here's a detail shot of that stitching pattern from the back.  I can see that I may want to be a little more conscious of what's happening on the back and I'm stitching those bias edges over the colored patches. 

This is only my first try with the new method. I was so impressed, I thought it was worth a follow-up blog post.

I don't know how long I'm going to work on this, but I went through my scrap bucket and cut all the 2-1/2 inch squares I could wrangle from it.

I have a lot of Avalon muslin left from dying days.  Turns out it was treated with some kind of permanent press thing which seems to prevent it from taking up the dye color as I would have hoped.  So it needs to be put to some other purpose: It seems to be working well as a substrate for Cathedral Windows!

Warp Run

152 ends of 14.5 yards of 10/2 American Maid Cotton 

1 of 4 sets of soon-to-be warp chains

My big accomplishment for the weekend: I ran the warp for the epic Mountain Cucumber Coverlet I've been planning for much of the past year.

14.5 yard warp of 10/2 American Maid Cotton with 644 ends total.

This is the longest warp I've ever done. I'm so glad I had my warping mill. I never would have been able to it on a conventional warping board, as there would have been tension issues and body pains. This  mill is a game changer!  Thank you, DH for making it for me! 

I had to run 4 sets of 152 ends (plus 1 more with some extras for repair strings), because that's all I could manage for this size warping mill.   

I had 4 1-pound cones and ran 4 strings at a time, using a slotted spoon. This one is plastic.  Last time, I used a metal spoon with holes in it, but that seemed a little rough on the yarn.  This plastic one was "kinder and gentler" on the fiber.

 

1 of the warp chains contained in a zip lock bag.

 

Here's the label to remind me of just what it is.

That's a lotta warp strings!  

It's a wonder that they stay neat and tidy, and don't turn into a snarled mess. Those weavers of old knew a thing or two!

Whew!  That's a big job out of the way.  Next task is to make sure I have enough heddles on each of 4 shafts on my floor loom.

Antique Mountain Cucumber Coverlet - Purchased

Ok Ok -- One last antique wool coverlet.  I've been watching this one on ebay, and knew that I would be very sad if it sold to someone else, so I made the seller an offer for lower than the list price, and they took it.  I am going to try to weave one in this pattern known as Mountain Cucumber, sometimes called Governor's Garden or St Anne's Robe.  I have not seen any other ones of this pattern on the market, so one more reason to NOT let it slip on by.  Tell Marie Kondo this one definitely sparks joy for me!  And if the one I make turns out to be a disaster with the panels not matching up, and the border botched, well then, I'll still have a "real one."

There is so much going on in this pattern that is holds my interest with an eternal fascination.  I love the squiggly, wormy lines along with the wagon wheels and the tables.  And the borders, too.    I am going to try to replicate it this year.  We'll see how far I get. This will be an ambitious project!

From the original eBay post:

eBay item number:125619730002

Antique Vintage Linsey Woolsey Overshot Coverlet Blue Textile Weaving 184 x 74

Antique Vintage Linsey Woolsey Overshot Coverlet Blue Textile Quilt Weaving 

Available is this large antique 1800’s Linsey Woolsey.  It is a gorgeous piece of antique hand made weaving and features a nice design in alternating blue and off white.  The piece is antique linen homespun and navy blue wool.  The linen warp is unbleached or has yellowed a bit over time.  There is a seam up the middle where two smaller sections have been joined together.  

The piece is quite large for a weaving of its type at 184 x 74.5 inches.  It does have some condition issues, irregular borders, a few small holes, repairs, a patch, and stains.  It displays nicely and is still in good overall condition.  From an estate - exact age and history are unknown. 

Item specifics

Condition:Pre-owned:

Seller Notes:“Please review photos and written description - some condition issues”

Pattern:Geometric

Time Period Manufactured:1850-1899

Material:Linen, Wool

Fabric Weight:Medium

Brand:Unbranded

Style:Country

Antique:Yes

Color:Blue

Original/Licensed Reproduction:Original

Type:Bed Cover