Spinning Mill Tour

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day after all the freezing temperatures we've had the past couple of weeks. I went, with members of the Austin Lace Guild, to a spinning mill (Sustainable Fibers) in Elgin, TX. It's about 25 miles out of Austin. We were given a 2 hour tour of the mill by 2 very knowledgeable people. Customers bring in all types of fleece from sheered animals to be processed. They also have a small shop with lots of delicious goodies and I, of course, came home with some of them. I've only posted some of the pictures I took but there is lots more information about the machines involved in processing at this link. 

skirting the fiber--removing vegetative matter

washing the fiber without agitation

the Picker opens up fiber for further processing; this is alpaca being processed; an alpaca produces about 3 lbs of fleece per year.

sharp teeth on the drum of the Picker

the empty closet that collects the throws from the Picker

the closet after the Picker has done its thing

the Carder opens and organizes the fibers

the Spinner adds twist to the prepared fibers

the spools on the Spinner collecting the twisted thread

the shop

my purchases

Click on the pictures for a closer view.

I'm addicted...

to weaving, that is. Nothing in the house is off limits. I'm having to hold myself back from cutting up the clothing hanging in my closet. Here are some photos showing updates on what I've posted before and a couple of new things. Click on photo for a closer view.

removed the braids from the bottom and did a diagonal weave

the top part was woven without a foundation with lots of the warp strips hanging down. put the whole thing on a foundation. cut into the foundation and wove the warp strips through it. hope to make this into a bag. it measures 20" x 9".

weaving without a foundation over a wooden box. that's a turtle, not a snail.

nothing is off limits. not even selvages woven in a hoop.

A wonderful video on the production of Linen

Hope you enjoy this 15 minute video on Linen which is my favorite cloth. I also enjoy listening to it in French even though I don't speak the language. Such a beautiful sound. There are English subtitles.

I'm also posting an updated picture of my frame weaving. I've put it on a backing cloth which is the same as the cloth in the weave but it was dyed with onion shells. Will start stitching on this piece and see where it goes. Just braided the bottom until I decide if I want to remove that section. This piece woven on the open frame has a softness and puffiness that the flat weaves don't seem to have. Click on photo for a closer view.

woven in an open frame

Weaving on an open frame...

More experimenting with weaving after watching Jude's video in class. I was not real happy with my first try because the light color cloth just frayed too much and not in a good way. So I ironed down the raw edges and twisted it after securing it to the frame. This one will not be reversible as the raw edges are on the back and that is ok. Jude pointed out that I could just use one long strip to weave so that is what I'm doing. Just experimenting for now so have no plans for this piece. Click on the photos for a close-up.

first try-took this apart and started over

ironed down edges--no more fraying

had to pin down first row to keep twist in place

weaving with a long piece and wrapping at the edge to start the next row

More Weaving---a bit on the unusual side

I found these cotton pants at the thrift store a while ago and couldn't resist. I wanted to weave something with them but didn't want to completely lose the faces. I found 2 sections that were identical and cut vertical strips from one section and horizontal strips from the other. I wasn't careful about the angle of the cut so as you can see the faces at the bottom do not match up exactly. As it turns out, I like the effect it gives. The left side has vertical strips of a sheer fabric where you can see parts of the face through the fabric. I don't really know where this is going but I'll be adding a lot more to this piece, just don't exactly know what that will be right now. All ideas and comments welcome. Click on the pics for a closer view.

Some Vintage Quilts

My bobbin lace teacher shared 2 quilts with us that she unearthed while cleaning out her dad's home. She found a total of 8 but these 2 were the oldest. One is a Civil War quilt, 1860s, I believe and the other is a WW II quilt. The Civil War Quilt has a note stitched on it by the quilter and there are initials in the center of the quilt---maybe of the person who received it as a gift. I love the WWII quilt with all the woolen patches. Here are some pictures. Click on the picture for a close-up view.

Initials embroidered in center of Civil War Quilt

Civil War Quilt around 1865

label stitched on by quilter

 

patches stitched on top layer

back of quilt appears to be linen--batting coming through where linen has worn away

more back views

Karen showing her WWII quilt

woolen patches

back of WWII quilt---feedsack

More fabric weaving and a heart for february...

Jude posted a heart cloth hanging from a snow covered tree and from that came a suggestion to hang heart cloths outside during the month of February. Just trying to spread some love and cheer and also to see how the cloth reacts to the elements. Hoping some of you who follow my blog will join in. Just something simple will do. We'll have a virtual clothesline around the world.

chenille heart weaving with bells

and here it is hanging in the tree

Have done some reweaving on the Moon Temple as well as some stitching. Had to mend a crack in the universe due to a miscalculation. Also did a second weaving of pale pinks and yellows in a geometric design that will be part of a pastel colored quilt. All this is part of Jude's Contemporary Woven Boro workshop. Lots of great things going on there.

reweaving done on the Moon Temple

mending the crack in the universe

geometric weaving

stitching down the cloth to the base

Weaving all day ... but not with fabric

I've always wanted to learn how to weave baskets. I went to my first lesson today and am very pleased with my first ever basket. I found a wonderful teacher right in my neighborhood and spent a very enjoyable day with 7 other students. I was the only newbie in the class and some beautiful baskets were being made. It's actually easier than I thought it would be but I guess that's because it was one of the simpler designs. I've already chosen another basket for my next lesson which will be sometime next month. Here are some photos. Click for a closer view.

busy weavers--check out the basket rack near the window

my wonderful teacher Lisa

my first basket is 12" in diameter x 7" high

it will hold lots of fabric scraps

 

Machine Wrapped Cording -- for Yvonne

I took a machine wrapped cording class from Linda Mathew in 2007. There is a link that she posted in 2009 showing lots of good info on making machine wrapped cording. I don't have any pictures from back in 2007 but I did find some of the cording that is still to be used in projects. I did my best to describe how each was done below the picture. Click on the pic for a closer view.

cords ready to be incorporated in projects

strips of t-shirt fabric wrapped with variegated yarn and zig zagged with yellow thread

cording wrapped with fluffy yarn and zig zagged with yellow thread

cording wrapped with eye lash yarn and zig zagged with blue thread

cording wrapped with chenille yarn and zig zagged with blue thread

Here is a link to Linda's website where she has lots of great tutorials on various subjects and much much more...

Black Walnut Dye and more...

I mentioned last time that a friend gave me some black walnuts in their husks. I've soaked them, boiled them and dyed some fabric pieces. I was amazed at how dark the liquid was just from soaking the walnuts in water. In fact I'm soaking them again for a second dye. This time maybe some bundles.
I also dyed a few of the lighter color catcher sheets and am pleased with the way they picked up the dye. I'm trying to make them leather like. Here is a photo.

2 linens, color catcher sheets and tie innards

Jude's advanced cloth to cloth class started this week and we're off and running. It's already been an amazing experience with a new tool to use for weaving designs. Here are a few pics. My first weaving is a moon temple. The bottom left pic shows the temple with an indigo moon in the center. That moon was a gift from Nat. On the right are the patterns for the weavings. Bottom pink weaving will be done by this evening, I hope.

weaving on left and patterns on right

...morphed into a project envelope

My color catcher sheet project has morphed into a project envelope. I did some fancy stitching, added a zipper and a lining. It measures 10" x 10" so it's a good size to carry around small projects. I love that the texture is very leather like. Here are some photos. Click on the photo for a closer view.

A friend brought me some black walnuts and they are now soaking in water. I hope to dye some of the lighter color catcher sheets and try to make it look like brown leather. I'll keep you posted.

playing with the color catcher sheets...

I played with several different designs and settled on this one. It reminds me of a barbershop pole. The house I grew up in had a barbershop on the main floor. I searched my albums for a picture and found one that shows the barbershop pole. We lived on the top floor. I love when old memories are triggered. My mom is wearing a coat in the photo that still hangs in my closet. A few more pounds lost and I might be able to restyle it and wear it as a jacket, after removing all that mink. It is a beautiful black wool coat. The story is that it was given to her by a boyfriend she had before she met my dad.

mom and me with our house in the background

just a barbershop pole

double-sided squares stitched together

the light shines through

a sheet in the washing machine catches the colors that run