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)

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!

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.  ;-)