8.19.11 Time for something new!

So I changed the “theme” for the homepage. I remember setting up this blog. I had no idea, as most of us didn’t, how to blog. I just chose a platform and went for it. I learned an awful lot about publishing and some it I have forgotten already. I guess that is how it is. In the meantime, I have learned that I should not doublespace after the punctuation at the end of a sentence. Boy is that hard to do after 40 years of doublespacing!

Well, then. Here are the Everlasting Towels, the weaving is finished but not the finishing. Heh. Not finished with the finishing. Since I made a longer warp than the pattern called for I ended up sacrificing weft to the warp. OK with towels but not with everything handwoven. I must remember that. They are in a pile right now, awaiting hemming and wet finishing. Then they can have their official debut. This WAS NOT a difficult project. I just took forever getting it done because of my stupid back and the stress that threading the loom places on it. Once the weaving commenced it was so enjoyable to see the progress.

I did some other weaving also. My young neighbor sold me a potholder loom for 8 cents. She told me she had “outgrown it”. So I have made some new potholders, to join my old ones that either my husband or children made when they were children. These things are great.

And finally, for Theresa, our kitchen has for 12 years been off white with an accent wall of deep, cobalt blue. This photo shows a failed blue that read as sage green with the light in here. Not a bad color but not what I was going for.
It is a north facing room and I wanted it to lighten without changing the lighting. So the experiments began. I tried yellow. I tried a faded red. But I came back to blue, in a medium tone.

The window treatments need to be sewn still but at least I have the fabric. It is blue with ivory animal toile by PKaufman, another $4 a yard remnant!

I also picked up another 3 yard piece of fabric at a local “antique” store for a few dollars. It is an “authorized reproduction of Old Sturbridge Village” fabric. I remember this colonial trend from back in the 80′s. I think we can call it vintage now.

8.3.11 Sew Hot

Baby is it hot. Still hot. And humid. Nothing like my favorite summer where it was 75 degrees on my wedding day almost 29 years ago. I hope that by the 23rd it will be 75 degrees. That seems as likely as us being this thin and young again!

Speaking of babies, I have been busy making something for my neighbor’s sister in law for her baby due on my anniversary. She had waited rather a long time to get started on the bassinet liner and could not find someone to do the work. So since I am known to make things for my house I was asked if I would make it for her. From a tiny drawing of an idea. I said “of course I can do that” and the games began. In linen. Linen toile. 3 yards only. Not that it was a difficult project but doing something from scratch including pattern making is not something I want to do for someone else when it is the first time I have attempted it. In linen. A lot of the work was due to the fact that it needed to be fully lined. Ah well, I learned a lot and she loved it. That is the important thing.

And since it is hot I started on my long neglected warp for some towels. My hands are too sweaty for much knitting.

6.6.11 Sewing again.

I made some more curtains, this time for the family room. I had this idea you see….

The Big Idea

The idea came to me as I came across some old curtains that had shrunk and faded. They have a tab top and are a nice blue that had hung somewhere in this house or the last one for a long time. I took them down and washed them and put them away as a fabric I might someday use for something. Don’t ask me how big my pile of fabric is, yours might be bigger.

I then went to the local fabric store that deals in home decorator fabrics and found a print that coordinated. I head always for the remnant pile, the big scary lump of tumbled up fabrics in wildly unmatched colors and patterns. If you go, get right in there and dig for buried treasure. $4 a yard sometimes less. In my area the best is Hancock Fabrics. Some are absolutely toxic but some are name brand cottons and linens. Names like Waverly, PKaufmann, Robert Allen and others. You will know what you like when you come across it. Buy a whopping lot of something you like, at least 5 yards more like 10 if you can get it. You never know when you might need some more. At $3-$4 per yard why not? So my !00% linen print fabric was 5 yards. 100% linen. Heavy linen. Printed with some cool colors that I like and with only a little flaw that I can live with. (You must check the remnants for flaws as there usually is one!) This fabric would have been $39.99 PER YARD if it was perfect. Some remnants are perfect. They may be fabric someone else returned to the store or the end of the bolt. Those are the best ones!

Next, get out your tools. Measure your window. There are lots of directions for this online. Decide how long you want your panels to be. If you are like me you already have the rod up on the wall, waiting for you but if you don’t then fabric stores have rods of all sorts these days. Sometimes they are on sale for 30-40% off and that is a decent score.

Since my fabric remnant is 5 yards long and I have 2 windows I divided it into 4 pieces for the 4 panels. I measured each piece and figured from there the lengths that the other pieces needed to be based on the proportions in my sketch.

Here are some photos of the process:

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5.11.11

The past month at the Lady’s house has been busy in spite of not blogging about it. My daughter Anne (grad student at U. of Alabama) and her possessions survived the Tornado That Ate Tuscaloosa, my MIL is still in rehab (for her ankle fracture), and my daughter Caroline stepped in a hole at night, in an alley, in the dark, carrying a case of beer for a party and sprained her ankle so badly she might wish it were broken. So I have been sewing and a lot of throw pillows and curtain panels have been created. Here.

The sewing space.

Pillows are addicting. When in doubt, refresh the home with textiles! I am not sure that I think the curtains are “right” but they will do for now. I tried them in the kitchen for a few days but I think they make the north-facing windows darker to the point of dismal so I will come up with another idea for the bay window there.

The whole room view.

The curtain rods still need to be attached to the wall but I think I am ready to do that. I am so happy to have my own sitting room, where the morning sun streams in that I celebrated with a new lamp.

The leaf lamp! From Homegoods.

My favorites!

The complex lumbar pillow with fringe.

So then, I made the Guernsey Wrap by Jared Flood out of Shelter yarn. Maybe it could have been a little wider to be a wrap. Maybe should have used a larger needle size. But I loved working with the yarn. It is a lot like pure handspun from roving.

The artsy shot of the Guernsey wrap

The long view with fruit.

Now I am working on this ruched yoke top from Interweave Knits spring 2011. Using Hempathy. Which is crunchy.

Ruching takes a while.

But I love crunchy, especially in cereal and snack foods.

Next, I will think about finishing Cubix

Cubix on DeeDee. It fits me too!

and start Assets of Evo. Not for me silly. That would be inappropriate, take my word for it.