Alpaca Scarf

This alpaca scarf actually turned out nearly the way I wanted. Originally, wanted vertical stripes, but the warp(vertical threads) were spaced too wide apart - my fault- so i got horizontal stripes instead. Its 8 inches wide & 64 inches long. Its light weight, yet warm & made from hand painted/dyed alpaca yarn. I'm getting better at weaving, just not quite where I want to be yet, but, then again, I'm still learning.

Quilting arts Magazine Challenge

This image was published in the June/July issue of Quilting Arts magazine. here's the link, http://quiltingarts.com/media/p/15823.aspx. I entered the challenge back in the winter but never heard anything more about it so I thought I didn't make it in. the other day I purchased a copy of the new issue & found some of the entries for this challenge shown in the issue. It said there were more entries online. I went online & looked for mine. Low & behold, there it was on the second page, second row on the far right. Its encouraging to see that someone likes you work enough to publish it. Will I enter more? Maybe, it depends on the challenge & what else I have going at the time. Finding this was the best thing that happened all week.

Sewing for Charity

I've always been one to help out wherever I can. Lately that means sewing for charitable causes. The latest cause is the million pillowcase challenge from All People Quilt.com. The idea is to make pillow cases, the goal 1,000,000 (not all from me of course)& donate them to charities in your local community. The website is keeping up with the numbers donated so far. My quilt guild is making them too, we're giving them to a foundation that services the military & their families. One of the guild members started the foundation in memory of a soldier she befriended as a pen pal. Shortly after he returned home, he passed away from cancer, which he didn't know he had until it was too late. Anyway, I've made 12 pillowcases so far. I was making them with my serger until it decided not to work correctly. I re-threaded it (a picky job itself) & finally got it to work again. I'm not sure how many more I'll make since I've met my goal of a dozen.
You know, just when you think things are going your way, life hands you another problem. Tuesday, my daughter's car quit on her in the middle of the road. It was towed home, but it still won't start. Hubby is working on it, we've tried a new battery- that wasn't it, next is to test the starter. I'm afraid the little car, which is old & worn out, just made its last run Tuesday. If that's the case,we'll have to figure out what the next step is. Since she's unable to work, she doesn't have the funds to get another car & mom doesn't have it now either. We'll work it out somehow. Stay tuned, life gets interesting every day . . .

Painted Yarns

Here are two balls of hand painted yarn. yes, I painted them myself. The process was simple. I first unwound the balls of store bought, cotton yarn onto a skein winder, then I tied the skeins so they wouldn't come tangled. I dunked them in plain water, applied the textile paint & allowed it to sit for a while so the yarn would absorb the paint. Then, I laid them out in the sun to dry. Once dry I zapped the yarns in the microwave for 3 minutes each. Next, I rewound the skeins back into balls. The longest part was waiting for the yarn to dry. It takes a hot sunny day for best results. The paints make the yarns a bit stiffer than dyes do because the paint sits on top of the fibers instead of becoming part of the fiber like dye would. I found a source for natural, plain yarns to dye or paint. I'll probably do this again.

A Shawl

Aside from some practice pieces, this is my first official woven project. It's a 24" wide shawl in wool yarn. Its about 5 foot long. It should have been a little longer, the target length was 6 foot. I'm still working on getting the right length to things. But, it does go around the shoulders nicely.
The photo below shows the detail. It uses a pick up stick design of 2 up & 2 down. It was fairly simple to accomplish & took about 4-6 hours to weave.

More to come, Stay tuned . . .

Christening Gown

Here is the christening gown I just finished making. Its made of 8mm silk haboti, the type of silk used in silk painting. This piece looks like a 2 piece dress & coat, but its actually a one piece gown, the the coat front attached to the back. It also has little embroidered flowers on the collar. It didn't give me too much trouble to make, expect for the "2 left fronts" I acidently made at first. I had to take out the lace & facing on the right side of the coat & turn it to correct it in order to have a right side & left side of the coat. I hope that made sense. Its from a Martha Pullen pattern. The last photo is the full view, the first is the detail & the second is detail of the closing on the coat. I don't have anyone in mind to give the outfit to, just made it to see if I could pull it off-- and I did, to my surprise.

Weaving Again

A couple of weeks ago I purchased 2 weaving looms, small ones, an inkle to produce bands & a 24" rigid heddle loom. Weaving is something I used to do some 20+ years ago & I've thought about going back to it for some time, so I did. I'm really rusty at it, so much so that I feel like a beginner- again. Once I get good at regular weaving I'll try the fancier stuff like patterned pieces & weaving on multiple heddles (those are the things the yarn/thread warp goes through to lay in the weft (the horizontal threads, the warp goes longways of the thread) Here is my first project, both on the loom & finished. Its a scarf, woven from regular sport weight yarns & it took about 2 days to produce.