Lovely Silk

Silk

This lovely pack of SILK was on the FREE table at Quilt Guild last night!  I could not believe my luck!   

The sari silk I bought a few years ago is too thin to sew into a quilt, but this will work nicely!   Most of this is sturdier, but I may still need to stabilize some of it ...  

I was thinking of making a crazy quilt, using the AccuCut Die, but now I'm thinking a different pattern might work better -- more like the Kantha quilts?  Or maybe a rail fence?  We'll see ... 

 

What about this 2-4-6 pattern would work well with this silk?

 

Or maybe something like this stacked coins quilt? 

 

Silk Scraps for a Crazy Quilt

Speaking of crazy quilts ...  I thought I would try working up one of my own!  This photo shows a pack of scraps from the trim off of silk saris.  Lots of glitz here!

On Etsy, I purchased some silk sari scraps from a seller in India.  Silk ties are hard to come by at the thrift stores these days, so I thought this was the most reliable way to get silk bits.

 Blues

 Burgundies

 

Grays

 

 And a 1-Kilo bag of silk scaps to add a pop of color here and there.

 

On top of that, my old friend Deb K. sent me some Italian silk remnants she had on hand.

I thought I'd use Pin Tangle's block patterns, as she mapped them out a few years ago ...  This should give me some good hand work to do at the monthly Charmers Meeting!

Little Things: Scrap Flower Yo-yo Hat Pin

Scrap Flower Yo-Yo Hat Pin

Years ago, back when I sold my journals at a holiday craft sale, there was a lady across the aisle from me selling recycled wool mittens (The real thing!).  She took some of her scraps and had the grandchildren make some lovely hat pins like this one:

In addition to a pair of mittens that year, I bought this hat pin, which has been on my classic wool "house-is-cold" wool hat ever since.

 But back to today's hat:

 

Recently, I acquired a "new" winter hat that needed some embellishment -- So I was looking for You Tube tutorials that explain how to make these kinds of shabby chic flowers.  It's easier than I ever thought!

By the way, that bit of blue silk is a scrap left over from my wedding dress back in 1999.   The button is from my button stash. 

Here are a few videos and the ones I used as references:

From Little Hive: 7 Different Styles of Fabric Flowers.

I was planning to work through more than 1 style, but I was so happy with the layered yo-yo, that I stopped there.  ;-) 

The other videos, I'm listing here for safe-keeping, in case I do want to revisit these again in future.

 

Satin Velvet Fabric Flowers 

 

 

Easy Shabby Chic Fabric Flowers for Spring

 

As a quilter, I don't quite feel like I have the right stash for making these flowers.   Quilt fabric is a little heavy to put to these purposes.  I really like that satin knot flower above ... maybe in a rich green satin?

 

Yes-- I'm on a stay-vacation this week, so I have a little more time than usual to do and make.  I think I'm procrastinating on a larger quilt that is the real project I had planned to work on this week.  But here I am working on yo-yo flowers instead!

Back on the Weaving Saddle Again : Beginning the Evergreen Circle Scarf

Starting the Evergreen Circles Scarf

At long last! I am weaving again.  It's taken me a few weeks to get up the gumption to tackle the threading error I knew was there.  I have to wait for the weekend because I work during the week, and need the natural light to assist with clear vision.  Black warp is hard to see ...

Turns out I was missing 1 set of 4 threads and heddles on the left side.  That's why the circle in the first sample looked a bit off.  Hail to sampling and testing!   That also let me see that the yarn with a gradient wasn't going to work for this very precise pattern.  It took a good part of the afternoon to set things right -- and just a little bit of swearing, but ...   Now we're back on track and I love the way this looks so far. Whoo-hooh!  It is a very satisfying pattern once everything is set up properly.

 

Treadle Tracking Beads

Once again, the beads keeping track of the treadle pattern have been a godsend!  There are 72 steps to a single pattern repeat on my 4-shaft loom with 6 treadles -- and I use every one!

It's fun to weave once the loom has been warped and threaded--correctly.  It's still not my favorite part of the process, but I've made my peace with it.  If you are going to weave, you have to understand that warping and threading is part of the whole package.    I know enough now that I can fix the problems that come up -- though sometimes I have to sleep on it for a few days to figure out what to do, and the best way to approach it.   Like quilting, weaving is a good exercise in project management start to finish!

 Detail of Evergreen Circle Weave Scarf 

Yarn is alpaca and highland wool, dyed by me.  

 

Warp strings running through the tension device at the back of the loom -- nice and orderly!

Also satisfying!

Weaving Yarns for more Circle Scarves

Ordered some new yarn from WEBS to make a few more of those circle scarves:

I could not bear to tear down the loom if it was all set up and "programmed" to make more of those delicious circle scarves.   I had the system down for keeping track of the 72 treadles changes in the pattern repeat.  Why not make more?  One problem:  Yarn Barn of Kansas didn't have any more of the yarns included in the kit (Jagerspun merino laceweight black and that red cashmere.)  So I went shopping with some birthday money ... and the webs discounts made the savings worthwhile esp. with these more expensive yarns. 

First I thought I could dye my own, but then remembered how hard it is to get a true black on wool.  Better just buy that one.  

Here's what I purchased:  

 

Valley Yarns 2/14 Alpaca Silk 

Alpaca and silk lace weight black on a 1/2-pound cone, suitable for weaving, and strong enough for warp.   I know what' I'll be doing next weekend!

 

Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace

Here's another lacewieght that I hope will be strong enough for warp someday.  I can dye this some other color if I so desire.  This is a mix of silk and wool (like I'm spinning at the wheel).  It was half price, and I couldn't pass it up.   Should be strong enough for warp and soft enough for weft.  I'll have to see about the weight.

 

Cashmere, merino and silk mixes in colors for the weft: red, green, and blue.

Hedge Hog Fibers Cashmere Merino - Plump (color)

 This is a little more fuscia-y than anticipated.  Maybe a dip in a little Red Wine dye bath?

 

 

Jade Sapphire Mongolian Cashmere 2-ply  

 

 

SweetGeorgia CashSilk Lace  

Didn't see the green in this when I ordered it. I was thinking it would be more of a singular blue ... Might not work for this project.

May the warping commence!

Inspiration from an Antique Crazy Quilt Block

Antique Quilt Block

I picked up this bit of loveliness on esty for just over $7 delivered.   It's a block cut from a larger antique crazy quilt.  I wanted to see it up close and study it ... WOW!

1. The fabrics used are all silks, velvets, taffetas ...  
2. The stitches appear to use a nice thick silky thread with a lovely luster to it.  Also neat to see the stitches on the back.
   
3. Even the back is some kind of fancier fabric with a silky finish.
   
4. Crazy Quilts traditionally had no batting layer.  Just the top and the back, which probably made it easier to do the fancy stitches and embroidery work.

The little crumb / crazy quilt blocks I've been doing with scraps are a different animal entirely!

I am planning to frame it and hang it on the wall for safe-keeping -- out of direct sunlight of course.   

My Collector Friend Karla said that there was a time you could get crazy quilts cheap.  I've only ever seen them starting at $300, no matter the condition.  I was speculating that this etsy seller might have cut up the quilt because parts of it may have been in tatters?  Who knows?  This particular square looks to be in excellent condition -- not worn or deteriorating fabrics.  

If you want to learn more, read The History of the Crazy Quilt from American Patchwork & Quilting or this short piece on Crazy Quilt History: A Vicotorian Fad by Womenfolk..

2-Ply Yarn - Wool and Silk

2-ply Wool and Silk Yarn

The Olympics leaves lots of down time in-between the action, so it's good to have something to do during commercials while you're waiting for those exquisite moments of grace or the agony of defeat--hence, spinning.

Here's that fiber before dizzing and spinning.  Nice stuff!

Fiberlicious

I've been carding an alpaca fleece I bought at Sabamba last spring.  Beautiful fiber!  I watched a video that explained how to pull it off the carder by rolling it between 2 wooden dowels into a fat rolag that can then be turned into hand-pulled roving--as opposed to dizzing it.  It's nice and compact and will store well, I think, but is still easy to pull apart for spinning.  I don't mind spinning off the batts, as they stay fluffy -- but they take up a lot of space, and can matt down over time.   See below ...  I worked through about 1/2 of that fleece this afternoon.

Here's the last of the alpaca roving I bought from Sabamba last fall.  This stuff has been a dream to spin -- so easy!  It's sad to be coming to the end of the batch.  It's remarkable that the roving doesn't get all tangled up.  It just unwinds nice and gentle ...


I found someone on eBay selling a mill end batch of 65% wool and 35% silk mix.  It's beautiful stuff!  The listing said it was clean, but needed to be carded--perhaps because it's been compacted.  I think I could get away with spinning it as is.  Something to look forward to when the alpaca roving runs out.  My friend Lynda liked it too, so we ordered a second round to take us through winter.


Remember those silk laps we learned about at The Sheep & Wool Festival?  I ordered some to experiment and play with.  I love the sheen on these!  the white one is mulberry silk lap; the other is honey tussah silk lap.