Thursday, October 29, 2009

Some quilting, some weaving

Yep, I've been a busy beaver, cutting, sewing and quilting, so here's a little preview of the quilting.




I warped up my inkle loom with a design found in Heather Heroldt's "Beginning Inkle Weaving" and love the design, although I'm still working on my selvedges as well as keeping the width even. This one was made the full length of the loom.







Friday, October 23, 2009

Ready to Quilt


These are the main fabrics for my next project, and they're all cut out and ready for me to start sewing tomorrow. I've switched out the machine in my sewing table, as I really prefer the Pfaff for piecing and binding.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Off the loom!


Wow, this scarf came out much better than the other one I showed you, although the selvedges still need work, the weaving and selvedges are much better than the Mini Mochi scarf. It still needs to be washed and trimmed, but I'm saving that for another day.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Woven Scarf

Here's one I've been holding out on, considering whether or not to post, but here it is:



This scarf was a lesson in choosing the right yarn for weaving, fixing a broken warp, and took quite a bit of patience to finish. After about 2" I almost cut it off the loom and threw it in the trash, because the warp was wanting to pill and shred, and one of the warp threads broke. I was able to continue, and finish weaving by using less warp tension, but that made it very difficult to get nice selvedges (hopefully it will look ok after washing). Both warp and weft are Mini Mochi, which is a gorgeous, soft, cushy yarn, but meant for knitting, and although it was nice as weft, I should have used another compatible yarn for the warp. Lesson learned.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Another quilted quilt and Demo this afternoon

Yep, I've finished quilting another quilt, so here's a sneek peek of the quilting on the back of the quilt. Time to move on to squaring up, binding and adding a sleeve, then on to another quilt.

Demo:
This afternoon, from 12-3pm, I'll be down at Gathering Fabric, in Woodinville, WA, doing a demo for my Clothlesline Tote Bag made with Bali Pops. Stop by and say hi if you're in the area.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

A little weaving

This one was finished a little while ago, but never made it to my blog:



It's just a little inkle band, this one made with 5/2 pearl cotton for the warp, and 3/2 pearl cotton for the weft. These sure do weave up fast, as it was warped one evening, and woven another, while watching TV.



On my loom now:

It's sock yarn on it's way to becoming a scarf. I'm still a beginner weaver, and sock yarn seems to be more difficult for me to get acceptable selvedges than non-stretchy cotton or linen. While I know many would have this done in a few hours, it will be here a while, as I only work on it between other projects.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

How it all began




Somehow when I say "yes" to something that sounds like it would be simple, the project always seems to grow into something larger than I had expected. There are those times I've been asked to make a quilt, and once I've said that magic word "yes", I find out that the project isn't what I had really envisioned, but much more.


One time it was a baby quilt, that ended up being two, because they later found out they were expecting twins. Yeah, I know there was no way to know at the time I was asked, but this is the way many things happen in my life.


I used to just quilt for family and the occasional gift, or helping finish up quilt projects with the kids at school. Then one day a quilt shop opened that was just down the hill from me less than 2 miles away! That's when it happened. I was asked by the friendly shop owner what I did, and of course answered that I did many different things, listing a few, including quilting. She talked me into bringing some quilts down to show her (I'd never taken a single quilt back to a shop to show them what I'd made), and said "ok". When she started looking at my work, she said I should be teaching, or writing, and I thought "who, me".


I began teaching, and then when it came time to design a block for her first shop hop, she asked me to design it. I was flattered, and said yes, figuring I'd just design it in EQ (Electric Quilt), and hand it off to her. We learned the rules together, and when the block was designed she looked at it on my laptop and asked what it would look like as a small 4-block quilt. When I showed her, she requested that I make the sample for her, which I did.





Then there was another remark "if we had a pattern, we could kit it up." Soon I was off getting a business license, researching to find out how to print, package, price, and all those necessary things to produce and sell a pattern. Finally it was ready, and off it went, into her shop, and my pattern company was on its way.







Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Creative Twist and Demo next week

Tuesday, October 13, from 10am - 3pm, is the next Creative Twist class, and it is called "Fun with Paintsticks". We will be stenciling and doing rubbings to create, or add to our fabrics, which in turn can be used for quilts, garments, or anything else you like.


Friday, October 16, from 12-3pm, I'm doing the Bali Pops demo at Gathering Fabric. I'll be showing everyone how I made my coiled clothesline tote from a Bali Pop, packaged clothesline, and a handle. I'm also working on a larger version (this one is giant) that is in progress that I will also be bring. Here's a quick picture of the one that is down at the shop, but before the handle was stitched on and closure finished.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Hitchhiker ST For Sale

UPDATE: HITCHHIKER WHEEL SOLD


Reluctantly, I have decided to sell my right treadle ST Hitchhiker spinning wheel (includes HH tote).


It was purchased earlier this year, as I had intended to use it as my travel wheel, but have only spun one skein on it, as I always use my other wheel at home. I'm asking $225 + shipping, payment through Paypal. I'm on Seattle, WA's Eastside, if anyone is interested who is local.



Here are a few pictures:






Friday, October 02, 2009

House and Studio Progress

Yes, our house is still a work in progress! The good news is that they now think it will be finished in about a month, and we can't wait!


I just love these pendant lights in the kitchen and dining room! Originally, we had picked out more contemporary ones, as they were all we had seen, but before the order was placed, we looked again, and these were available. They match the lighting in the rest of the house much better, since we decided to go with a candle "look".


On the outside, you can see there is still much to be done, although now it is mostly landscaping. If we don't do something with this sloped area of dirt, when the rainy season comes, we will be in for a muddy river eroding this area, so it has to be dealt with soon.



The lights have all been installed in my studio, and just in time for the painters to be able to use it as their temporary painting / staining studio. At least it will be mine once the house is finished!