Wandering Vine Coverlet: Panel 1 of 2 Complete and Lessons Learned So Far

I finished the first panel of The Wandering Vine Coverlet.  20 repeats of the pattern filled about 100 inches, plus 3 inches for hems at the top and bottom.  1 more to go!

Once again, I kept track of my progress with a run of adding machine tape, so that I can try to match it block-for-block on Panel 2.  I also used a tape measure to track the whole panel.

 

Lessons Learned:

For the 1 panel, I used 16 bobbins of red wool yarn and 6 large bobbins of 10/2 cotton for the tabby.

1 red bobbin weaves about 5 inches of cloth.    1 bobbin of 10/2 cotton weaves about 14 inches of fabric.

The sectional warp took a long time to set up (about 2 months of Sundays), but it seems to be working as promised.  No tension issues!   The only thing is that I need to be careful when unwinding the warp, or winding the warp forward.  Sometimes the strings like to get hooked around one of the separators, and then they break because they are not where they should be, and the tension gets tight.  Now I check to make sure all the strings are in the right lane before I tighten the warp.

It look like some of the warp hank flipped or twisted when I installed them onto the sectional beam.  Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be causing any problems for the warp.  Whew!

The shuttles on the left side like to fall down through the loom, so I have not been able to use the little side table on the left side.  The solution is to set them on a stool instead.  

I should have enough warp left (12 yards total) to make some towels once the 2nd panel is finished.

Resizing a King to a Twin-size Quilt

Dad's King-size quilt resized to a twin.

I knew this day was coming ...  when my Dad would move into assisted living, and I'd have to small-ify the king-size quilt he's been sleeping under to make it fit his new twin-size bed.

This is the quilt my mom and I made for their 50th wedding anniversary in 2019.  The pattern is Sonia's Windows.  It was so big, I couldn't even get it all in this photo!

The photo at the top of this post is how it turned out after my re-working it last weekend.

How did I do it?  I was entertaining several options to make it smaller.

Option 1) Fold it in half and sew a seam down the open edge.  I did NOT wind up doing this because as big as a king-size quilt it, it doesn't quite cover a twin bed when folded in half.  This method also messes with the borders, and makes it look like a quilt folded in half.

Option 2) Take it in down the middle, and fold the extra so that the mid section has a double layer.  This preserves the borders.  I did not use this method either.

Option 3) Cut part of it off, and add a binding, but this messes with the borders, and would make it look like an amputated quilt.

Option 4) What I ended up doing was to take it in on the border edges.  I folded 2 rows of blocks under the borders on both the right and left sides and stitched 2 seams to hold the overage.  This "hid" 4 rows of blocks -- half the quilt, while preserving the border treatments.  This also preserved the patterning of the blocks, and the diagonal colors running through the quilt.  The added weight at the edges makes the borders heavier -- This should be okay because the borders will hang over the edges of the bed, and won't make the center heavier or too warm.  If it's too long, we can always tuck it under the end of the bed.

Wooden Basket for Weaving Bobbins

I claimed this wooden basket from my Dad's house, before the auction later this month.  My Dad was so fond of the woods and wood products, I couldn't let this slip away ...  and it reminds me of some of those neat rustic bowls Li ZiQi used in her videos. 

At present, it sits next to my "big" loom, holding the bobbins and yarn for the current coverlet project.  Very handy!