Winter Progress

A number of quilts have come and gone, as some weaving as well!  I'm not just a quilter, I also do a number of other fiber arts.  I have made socks, tunics, and tablet woven bands.

Here a 14th century book of hours illustration features a woman weaving a band on an upright loom.  It looks like tablet woven bands, but it's hard to make out the details.  In her left hand are the four-hole cards, and she has a heck of a beater in her right hand.  I'm unclear how the other end of the weaving is set up on that vertical piece of wood...what is it for?

Of course, I don't use a loom like this to weave my bands--I use an inkle loom.  I've made around 12 pieces so far, selling a few, giving a few away, and keeping a few for myself.  These are some of the pieces that I took to the recent medieval faire.

Recently, I made a test piece based on a 6th century Norwegian pattern.  It's a short band, measuring only about 1 3/4 yards, but I have already been asked to weave another for a woman in green and gold.  That'll be next after I finish...

...this band!  This is a double-sided "Anglo-Saxon" band that I found online.  I suspect that it may be documentably period, given that the author of the web site I found called it Anglo Saxon, however, she did not list the date or source of the pattern.  It may be in a book that I do not currently have access to--it's out of print and there are no booksellers that I can find that currently carries it.  More research is needed to find out more information about this pattern...as are 25 pairs of fishing spinners to help untwist this mess...all the cards continuously turn in the same direction.

Over in the quilting zone, here are a few of the quilted pieces I've finished lately:

Monkey Madness!  This was actually a two-sided quilt.  This panel with the borders on one side, and a pieced quilt on the other.  For some reason, I can't find the photo of the other side.  Clearly, I'm a quilter, not a photographer!

For Malcolm!  My nephew was born on the last day of January.  I finished the quilt for him a couple weeks before he was born and got an opportunity to deliver it to the new family in person.  Barring any miracles, he is the last of the cousins to be born.  I still owe him one more quilt that my sister and I are going to make together in the near future.

Blue and white...like jeans and t-shirts...reminds me of cowboys!  I like cowboys...  This is a great scrappy blue and white that didn't photograph as well as it could.  Remember that bit about not being a photographer?  Besides, I took the picture with my phone, which is not the greatest.

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten good pictures of a few more recent pieces I was working on.  One of them I completely forgot to take a photo of when it was finished!  All I have is a picture of it in process.  These were some really lovely fall colors!  Just makes you want to go bake a pumpkin pie!  She just wanted a simple stipple over the surface, which I debated whether to do it in gold, black or grey.  In the end, it was the black thread that looked the best.

Next on the frame is a Sounders Fan Baby quilt.  Rave green and blue!  It's really a great pattern and the colors are bright and cheerful.  I'll be cheering in those colors soon!  Go Sounders!

In the wings are five pieces for Quilts of Valor and four that will be given to patients at Children's Hospital, plus a few quilt tops for myself that I finished recently.  One of them is a UFO that's at least 10 years old.  Note that this quilt is pinned to the log cabin quilt hanging on the wall--again, photography skills lacking.  I started making this when my middle daughter was not quite 2.  She's now 11.  Time to finish this up and get it on her bed!