Lone Star Tote Bags

 

Lone Star Totes 

Remember those lone stars I was making back in April at a local quilting class?  I finally decided what to do with them!    It's the perfect solution for orphan blocks.

I bought some sturdy blank $3 tote bags from Hobby Lobby. 

  

The faded glory Americana Star, in honor of America 250.

 

Here's a clearer picture of the free-motion (freehand) quilting as seen from the back side.  

  

There were 2 "Green Fire" Stars like this one.  I love that center fabric! 

 

 

Here's the Blue Star version.  

 

 

All 3 stars were quilted with this general design.  

I free-motion stitched the star blocks to some felt I picked up on the FREE table at Quilt Guild one night.

The felt doesn't unravel which means you can leave the edges "free" with no special treatment.  This also makes it easy to sew it to the tote bag.  

 

I left to top edge open so it can act like an extra pocket, too! 

I may donate a few of these to the Boutique for the Fly In Quilt Show in July.  

I'll keep one for myself, too. 

Poppy Overshot Draft

Mystery Red Flower Overshot

Photo from The National Museum of Australia.   This weaving is attributed to Effie Kyprios.

 

Mystery Red Coverlet

I saw this coverlet on eBay, but could not identify the draft.  The seller said it was whig rose, which I knew was not accurate.   The price on it was quite expensive for a vintage revival (not antique) coverlet, so I thought I could make one for much less -- But due to the trouble in finding the draft, I put in an offer just so I could study it and maybe try to work out the draft.  We'll see if the seller goes for it ...

I was so enthralled by this overshot pattern, that I poured through all my overshot / coverlet reference books in search of the draft:

• The Coverlet Book Early American Handwoven Coverlets 2 Volume Set by Helene Bress
• Frances L. Goodrich’s Coverlet and Counterpane Drafts
• Frances L. Goodrich's Brown Book of Weaving Drafts  
• American Woven Coverlets by Carol Strickler
• A Handweaver's Pattern Book by Maguerite Davison [The Green Book]
• The Handweaver's Pattern Directory by Anne Dixon

But to no avail!  I didn't find anything that matched the flower motif instead of wheels.

I used a Google Image search to see if it turned up anywhere else on the internet, and yes, there was a museum in Australia that had an "Effie Coverlet" made by a young Greek woman in the 1940s.  She was only 17 when she made it.  

It's also listed in the out-of-print book, Keep Me Warm One Night (p.175). It's listed as coming from Greece (See the Effie note above).   Not all overshot hails from America!

I finally resorted to crowd-sourcing and posted it to a few Facebook weaving groups.  At first, I got a fair number of responses--People wanted to help, but most answers were not that useful, leading to similar, but not the draft I was looking for.  Some were not even close.  Some people suggested that I draft it out myself -- Unfortunately, I don't have those skills--yet.    

Someone even suggested this book -- which is now on my wish list as yet another reference book for weaving drafts.   ;-)

By the next morning, Bill Crawford and Robyn Spady (A Few of My Favorite Things blog) identified this pattern as "Poppy" on the 4-Shaft Weaving Facebook group.  Mystery Solved!

Bill Crawford said that he'd designed Poppy for Veteran's Day, and made a table runner out of it.

Robyn Spady and Bill Crawford provided versions of the draft above. 

This is on my list to make a coverlet someday!  I might need to put in a new order for yarn -- Maritime Fibers have singles dyed in deep and luscious colors.  Maybe red or dark maroon or even light blue?

Red Poppy Coverlet [Purchased]

 

I purchased this beautiful Red Poppy Coverlet on eBay recently.  

 

IIt was priced so high, I thought I could make one for less, but soon discovered that the draft was not easy to find [That adventure of discovery will be in a separate post.] 

 

As soon as I gave up the ghost on finding the draft, I was resigned to study it and figure it out myself.  So I made an offer that was much lower that the seller had listed.  I didn't think they would take it -- but they did!

 

At about that moment, the pattern and draft had also been identified on one of the Weaving FB Groups.

Jackpot!

 

I do intend to make one like this -- but maybe in blue since I now have a red one in my collection. 

It looks like one of the Goodwin Guild coverlets from the last century.

The listing says it is 1 whole cloth, so made on a much larger loom than someone would have at home. 

 

 

Raspberry Cordial Quilt with it's New Owner

Kellee opening the Raspberry Cordial Quilt

I saw my old library manager and colleague last week.  We've been through so much in the last 11 years!  Now that we've come to the end of this road, I wanted to give her a quilt to celebrate our retirements.

She was quite happy with the quilt.  I know she likes red -- You can see it elsewhere in the picture.  Although I made this one quite a while ago, it was the only red quilt I had to give away. 

 

Don't you just love the look of surprise when someone opens up a gifted quilt?  ;-)  

Re-programming the Loom to Make a Different Pattern

Trying something new!

I finished the first waffle weave bath towel out of that kit.  And I have to say: I'm over it.  Overshot is so much more interesting!  I have enough warp left to weave 1 more bath towel, or 3/4 tea towels in some other pattern.  The heddles/shafts are threaded in a point twill pattern, which is basic and versatile.  If I use the same threading (the dots across the top of the diagram below) through the heddles and shafts, but change up the tie-ups (the upper right corner of the diagram below) for the treadles and the treadling, I can have a whole new pattern weave.  Add some color and voi la!

This is the first one I tried (actual woven fabric on the loom in the photo at the top of this post):  

 

The treadle order (the dots down the right side of the diagram) is almost the same -- just running up and down the 8 treadles. 

I think I am in love!  What an easy way to re-kindle my love for weaving. ;-) 

I am using some red Brassard cotton for the weft.  But I have other colors I can use, too.

It's pretty darn amazing that you can have such a completely different weaving pattern, just by changing the treadle tie ups -- which is easy enough.  I can't believe I didn't have to spend 2 months starting over with a new warp and threading all those heddles.   With a simple change in tie-ups (about 20 minutes), I can be weaving a whole new pattern!

There are lots of other possibilities with the same standard threading, just varying the treadle tie ups.  Here are some other possibilities I might try:

  

  

We are finally getting some nice fall color here.  Ahh! 

Weaving - Wandering Vine Cotton Towels

All cotton towels. Overshot 4-shaft weaving pattern: Wandering Vine.

 

With the leftover warp from the Wandering Vine Coverlet, I made some all cotton towels.

The warp is 10/2 American Maid Cotton, same as for the wool coverlet.

Wandering Vine All Cotton Towels, fresh off the loom

 

 

The weft is Maurice Brassard Cotton in various colors.  I had to double up the pattern threads, so I used the shuttle with 2 spools.  It was not working to wind both strings onto the same spool. 

All the towels turned out quite well.  A few special people will be getting some hand-made towels in the coming year.  ;-)  They all have a nice hand -- what you would expect for towels.  As I understand it, they will improve with use, washing and drying will improve their absorbancy.

I varied the pattern repeats, too, as I wanted to see how much they would shrink and just what makes a good size for a kitchen / tea towel. 

On the loom under tension, they measured about 36 inches wide.

After wet-finishing, they shrunk to  32-1/2 inches wide.  There is always more take-up than you'd expect.  The measurements below do not count the bits that are folded under for the hems at the tops and bottoms.

They are all slightly different lengths (or widths, depending on your perspective), in part because I wanted to test out some different sizes for towels -- and because I filled only so many bobbins and didn't want to waste the Brassard cotton. 

Red - 32-1/2 in x 20-1/2 inches with 4 pattern repeats.

 

Sky Blue - 32-1/2 in x 24 inches with 5 pattern repeats.

The actual blue is lighter than it shows in the photo.

 

Green - 32-1/2 in. x 24-1/2 inches with 5 pattern repeats. 

 

Indigo - 32-1/2 in x 15 inches with 3 pattern repeats.  My husband claimed this one, as he thought it was the perfect size and color for his blue kitchen. 

 

Here it is hanging in it's rightful place on the oven door handle in the kitchen. 

A BIG Finish: The Red Wandering Vine Coverlet is Complete

 

The Wandering Vine Coverlet

I pulled it off the big loom on Saturday morning last weekend.  12 yards of fabric --  2 panels for the coverlet.  Only 2 panels because this is a wider loom.  I finished up the extra warp with all cotton towels in the same wandering vine pattern.

I cut the coverlet panels apart and did the work of piecing them together.  This should be done before wet-finishing or any other tinkering.

I explain in more detail (with pictures) how I pieced the panels together in this post for the last coverlet:

Progress on the Mountain Cucumber Coverlet Project

 

I had some concerns that the pattern in the panels might not match up -- the tape measure seemed to say that the 2nd panel was longer than the first.  In actuality, they were pretty close at 104 inches. 

I think the measuring tapes much have shifted while on the loom.  No surprise there.  Things are under tension while I'm actually weaving, but on the off days the rest of the week, I loosen things up.  There's a lot of back and forth on that tape.  When I took them off and measured them side by side, they matched up well enough.  Whew!

This photo shows the zigzag used to pieces the panels together.

In any case, I was able to match up the pattern easily enough.  I overlapped the selvedge edge by 1/2 an inch.  Finned it in place with safety pins (less pokey that way), and took it to the sewing machine to piece the panels together.  I used a narrow zigzag 1.5 stitch length and 2.5  stitch width.  The zigzag covers that selvedge edge and contains it.  Then on the flip side, I sort of stay-stitched it with a straight stitch, and then went back over it with the same 1.5 / 2.5 zigzag.  You can hardly tell there's a seam in the middle unless you are looking for it.  The wandering vine pattern matched up pretty well.  ;-)

 

I did the hems a little different this time.  I trimmed the cream-colored cotton plain weave hems to 3/4 inch.  Then I folded them over 3x so that none of that white plain weave shows--like it would for towel hems.   Then I stitched it down with a blind hem stitch.  I think it looks more professional that way -- more of the classic look where the pattern is all you see.

 

Pulling the nylon fishing line used to fortify the floating selvedge edges. It's hard to see, wound around the medical pliers.

I almost forgot to pull the nylon fishing line that I use for the floating selvedges.  It works like 2 charms to keep those edges straight.  But I do need to pull it out of the final cloth.  I already had the panels sewn together when I remembered to do that.  It wasn't hard to pull it from the outside edges, but a little trickier to get it out of the  seams that joined the panels.  Trickier, but still manageable -- I used a handy medical forceps to grab onto that fishing line, and then twist until I had all of it extracted.

The thing about nylon fishing line is that you should cut it up into little pieces before you throw it in the garbage.   This prevents animals from getting tangled in it when it goes "wild."

Hemmed and pieced BEFORE wet finishing.  If you look closely, you can barely see the seam moving horizontally about halfway through the piece -- but only if you know what to look for.  It came together better than I thought it would.  It looks good -- if a little flat.  But wait for the magic of wet-finishing!

After wet-finishing.  The reds seem to bloom so nicely!   It really comes alive after the wet-finishing.  The wool yarn gets a 3D texture--I'm not sure how to describe it.   Almost like that old flocked wallpaper.  

 

And no running reds either -- That's always a concern with red dyes.

It has a really nice hand, too.  I love this combination of 10/2 cotton with a wool yarn about 2x that weight.

The sectional warp worked marvelously and mitigated most of the tension issues I've encountered in the past.  Hurray!  What a good investment that was!

Materials:

10/2 American Maid natural cotton warp and tabby

Red Wool yarn for the pattern weft -- I don't really know the specifics more than that. 

Measurements:

Off the loom and BEFORE wet finishing:
Each panel was 35-1/2 in x 104 in.

Together, the full coverlet was 69-1/2 in x 97 in. (after hems top and bottom)

AFTER wet finishing, the full finished coverlet measures 65-1/2 x 94 in.

I am very pleased with how this turned out.  Not quite as fun to work on as the Mountain Cucumber pattern, but I DO love weaving!  I DO love my looms!

 I will see if I can put it in the Fly In Quilt Show this summer -- in the bed turning again.  I will take it to Quilt Guild this week for show-and-share.

Now the loom is naked -- such a sad state.  I'll need to run a warp for the next project soon! 

 

Here are the other blog posts about this project:

Antique Wandering Vine Coverlet in Red and Cream - March 3, 2024

Plans for the Wandering Vine Coverlet - March 31, 2024

Fiberworks Weaving Software and Davison's Wandering Vine - May 5, 2024

Now We're Getting Somewhere ... Progress on the Endless Warp - May 19, 2024

Weaving Again! on the Wandering Vine Coverlet - May 29, 2024

Wandering Vine Test Pieces - Wow! - June 15, 2024

Progress on the Wandering Vine Coverlet - July 14, 2024

Wandering Vine Coverlet: Panel 1 of 2 Complete and Lessons Learned So Far - August 25, 2024

Progress on the Wandering Vine Coverlet - Nov. 17, 2024

My Happy Place: Weaving at the Loom - December 15, 2024

Loom Music on a Cold Winter's Day: Weaving the last of the Wandering Vine Warp - Feb 8, 2025

Watermelon Quilt Top is Complete

 

The Watermelon Quilt Top

While I was on vacation this past week for Thanksgiving, I added the final borders to this quilt top.  I always thought of it as a picnic quilt with a watermelon theme, hence the picnic tablecloth check for the borders.

I sewed the center blocks at Quilt Camp in October.  I'd gotten a jelly roll called seedless watermelon for the center blocks.  I added some black to put the seeds back in [Wink!].    The light accent is really a light green to simulate the rind part of the watermelon.

Nic to have it done this far, though I can't say when the rest will be finished ...

Progress on the Wandering Vine Coverlet

I wove the last pattern repeat on Panel #2 of the red wandering vine coverlet.  Sigh!  There not much to show just yet, since the woven cloth is still currently wound on the cloth beam.  

According to my measurements, I think the 2nd panel may be slightly longer than Panel #1.  I guess 90 minutes on a Sunday wasn't enough to keep a steady beat -- Apparently, I need the full 3 hours as I did on the Mountain Cucumber coverlet in 4 panels.  I am hoping the panels will match up well enough to  make the pattern work.  We shall see ...

I still have several yards of warp on the loom, so I thought I would finish it off in the same wandering vine pattern for towels.  Here I've started on a sky blue Brassard cotton.  In order for the pattern weft to be thick enough for overshot, I am doubling the threads.   

I think it will be 5 pattern repeats of the sequence per towel.  The phot above shows 1 pattern repeat -- along with the treadle beads atop the beater bar.

It's the perfect time to use my Jim Hockett 2-spool bubinga shuttle.

There is a mistake in the bit woven above.  Can you see it?  I may have to pull that thread -- Then again, it's just towels!

I purchased some other colors:  cherry red - emerald green - navy blue - sky blue - and a lighter green.  It's very difficult to know the true colors when you see them online, so it was kind of a crap shoot until you can see them in real life.

Time to study and get ready for a new project!