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!

February Fun!

I finished up a couple things lately--Tara's 'Hearts' quilt that she handed to me with a "no hurry" deadline finally had its turn on the long arm.  I love working on her quilts--the seams are pressed, her measurements are accurate, the top is squared up, and the whole quilt lies flat.  Her tops are a dream to work on--she does great work!  If you are the kind of quilter who "quilts by check" (rather than by hand or by machine), these are things that your long arm professional LOVES to see!  Ask your quilter for other tips to make their job easier.  My regular customers have a large Ziplock bag to put their next project into--it holds the top, batting and backing in one bag that won't get wet or dirty in transit to and from the customer, it's transparent so you can see what's in the bag, and it's re-usable!

Next quilt up on the long arm is another one of Tara's for her son, Andy.  He likes unusual colors and patterns, and he lovingly selected these fabrics himself.  He's my nephew, so he felt obligated to pester Auntie Karen to get his quilt done already...which he did last week.  :)

After this one, I have another six quilt in line to work on, plus the Watermelon Weave for Juana.  I'm going to be busy!

I also started the anchors weave, but haven't had time to work on it much lately.  I hope that I can finish it up this week to I can send it off to the new owner.

Quilt happy!
Karen, Ye Merrie Quilter

Quilting and Weaving Works, Winter 2011-2012

I have been working on a few quilts this winter and also doing some more weaving, some of which I have sold to individuals either on commission or at events.  Here is my most recent experiment.  It was an exercise in Egyptian Diagonals, assigned by a weaving mentor, and I think I got the hang of it!  After figuring out how to do the basics, I experimented with turning and making different shapes and designs.

A few other things I've been working on include this Packers quilt for my sister's grandson.  It's late in arriving for Christmas, but this was due to a family emergency--her friend was very ill and passed away in December.  My sister went to be with her for her final days and Christmas was put on hold.  I finished this and handed it off to her in early January.

The second half of the antique quilt completion project has concluded as well.  These four quilts were tops originally hand-pieced by her grandmother, and were handed back to Tina this morning over coffee.  She was delighted to have the quilts completed and ready to be added to her cozy home.

This is the quilt that I added a different fabric on the back than what she had provided.  She had picked up antique bed sheets--mostly--for the backs, but this one had been paired up with a Made-in-China, 100% polyester bedsheet.  It was awful and I could not bear to sew this awful fabric to the back of this gorgeous hand-sewn quilt.  I wrote to her begging to allow me to find something more suitable, and made a deal with a Civil War reproduction that I had found on sale a couple years ago.  She loved it!

These are some fun quilts with space aliens on the tan fabric.

More of this alien fabric.  Too fun!

More weaving that I have done.  This one I thought the color combination was really striking!  It's just over 4 yards and I am selling it for $60.  I called it "Double Diamonds" since the pattern on the back also has diamonds.

This one took a lot more work, so I'd have to sell it for a bit more, but I'm not sure I'm ready to part with it...at least not yet.  I could make another one like it if someone was interested in owning one like it and would sell it for $75.  This one is also about 4 yards and is called "Ram's Horn."  I love this pattern...maybe because I'm an Aries...

This is a piece of weaving that I called "Barony of Aquaterra, Kingdom of An Tir" due to its color combinations.  Black, yellow & white are for the kingdom; blue, green & white are the Barony's.  It was donated as a prize to the Ursulmas Medieval Faire and was given to a lady by the name of Emma.

This one I called "Black and White and Red all over", for obvious reasons.  It was two yards and sold for $30.  It was an experimental weave of a pattern that I just made up.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I can reproduce it exactly...I was trying to create a pattern from a finished piece I saw in a book, but was unsuccessful.  It still looks interesting, but not what I was aiming for.

This is a commissioned piece for Molly.  I worked out a special deal with her for this 4 yard piece.  This was loosely based on a pattern I found online, but I did a different turning sequence to come up with this repeating pattern of diamonds.  

This is another 4 yard band that I called "Hugs and Kisses" (see the X and O?).  I sold this one for $60 also.  This was from an online pattern generator.

This is another favorite, the Aquaterra band.  A 4 yard piece for $60.   This is also the Double Diamond pattern, but obviously with different color placement. This is one of my favorites, I think!

What's next on my docket?  I've got a couple quilts for my sister--a pair of scrappy quilt tops--as well as a weaving band for a High School friend who wants a belt with Anchors on it.  Another commission from Juana for a woven piece that looks like watermelons...that'll be fun!  I also have a tunic to finish for Tyrssen, the 4th of 4 tunics he commissioned.  

Late Fall 2011

 Keeping quite busy this fall, leading into Christmas time.  My sister dropped off several quilt tops following a pre-holiday quilting frenzy.  First is a top designated for her grandson, a HUGE Packer fan.  Another Packer quilt is on the long arm now, but will be delivered some time later--a family emergency has put these on the back burner (she won't be able to bind them before Christmas, so she's going to deliver them sometime in the new year).

Next is a top for her granddaughter, a sweet pink dots quilt.  This one was super-easy to make, and just a ton of fun! I quilted it up with "3s and Es", which is pretty and fast to do, so it makes it one of my favorite all-over patterns to use.  I used the same pattern for the Packers quilt and again on another quilt for my sister's neighbor.

Then there was the emergency quilt for Linda, who is terminally ill.  At the time, we knew she was ill and my sister decided to go visit with her for a week, but the week has turned into a month as they make arrangements for her comfort in her final days.  The color on this photograph is not great, and it's hanging on another quilt on the wall, which makes it difficult to see where one quilt stops and another one starts.  I'm working on finding a new place to display finished quilts for photographing.  Hers has a black border, then a blue and purple checked border, then the black binding.  Tara picked up the quilt just before getting on the plane to fly out to be with her.

Just before Thanksgiving, I was given a stack of quilts to work on some antique quilts.  These were made by Tina's grandmother, all sewn by hand, all fabrics from her scrap bag.  There's a little bit of everything in these--dress materials, shirtings, kitchen towels, bedsheets, feed sacks...just everything.  It's like a "Kitchen Sink" quilt.  How's that for just coining a new phrase?  Two of the quilts look like this one--squares on point.

The third one is this much more complex hexagon pinwheels, again, all sewn by hand, all different fabrics.  Her plan is to have all these finished to be able to distribute to family members as completed heirlooms.  Tina does not sew except by hand, and completing seven of these quilt tops would be extraordinarily difficult to finish by the holidays, or any time next year.

At the last minute, I got a call from Margaret, a mom from my kids' school, who needed a quilt finished up for her sister ASAP.  She dropped it off on Thursday, I quilted up most of it that day then had to get a new spool of thread for the back (I was about 1 foot square short of completing it), and finished it up on Friday for her to pick up before the end of the school day.  Since this quilt was all green and leafy, she asked for a leaf pattern to be quilted all over the top.  I pulled the birch leaf pattern out of my repertoire and covered the surface with leaves.

The other thing I've starting doing is card weaving.  In the SCA, there is quite the demand for woven and embroidered trims. Although this may not be a documentable pattern (called "Ram's Horn"), it is plausibly period design using a period technique.  I don't have a plan for all these pieces, so I'm considering partnering up with a merchant to sell them on consignment.  I'm not a merchant and don't have enough wares to justify sitting at a table all day, but those who do and love it can earn a few bucks by having a few extra pieces in the shop...a little more variety.  I think of it as a win-win.

Here is my loom set up with a lovely piece that is also finished with a simple six forward-six back weave.  It created a gorgeous pattern on the top and an equally beautiful pattern on the back.  I'll have to do some more in different colorways.  I recently picked up some non-heraldic colors that I'm anxious to get into, although I need to replace a few of the colors I'm running low on, like red and green.

Right now I'm experimenting with a new weaving pattern that is documentable--a Saxon threaded-in pattern that alternates weaving the even and odd numbered cards, creating a narrower band, but is twice as thick.  This makes it a more complex pattern but it also is nice to have a documented design that I can put on a garment or enter into competition.

Hope you all have a great holiday--whatever you celebrate--and a fantastic new year!

K