Old Garden Journals

Reading woman with wings blog post on garden journals brought back memories. I remembered that when I first moved into my house I kept garden journals. I scoured my bookcases and found 3 old journals. Loved looking through them and reading what I had written back in the late 1980s and 1990s. Thought I'd share some pictures. I even found a note I had received from my Aunt Jean that she wrote in 1985 when she sent me some seeds for the silver dollar plant. Thanks woman with wings for the memories. Click on the pics for a closer view.

journal from 1988

note that came with silver dollar seeds from Aunt Jean in 1985

picture journal from 1997

pictures and articles in this journal

More Shibori dyeing experiments...

Used up the leftover dyes by over dyeing some pieces from yesterday with some new wooden templates I bought at Michaels this morning. I also dropped some used color catcher sheets into the dye. It takes the dye real well. Tried to tone down the colors some. I prefer muted colors but it will take me a while to learn how to achieve that. I also took that last piece I posted yesterday, cut it into strips and wove it with one of the pieces that turned out quite light. I love the way this weaving turned out. Seems like saturation of the lighter silks create the most beautiful designs. I have a hard time getting the dye to penetrate through the heavier silk.

moons on a color-catcher sheet, wooden hands, wooden hearts

weaving using 2 shibori dyed pieces

Shibori Dyeing Silk

My nails are green and blue from dyeing all morning with the Colorhue Dyes. Glennis has posted our first lesson and I'm already addicted. I'm thinking I'd better stop until the next lesson because I don't want to run out of dye before the class ends. On my last 2 pieces, I took to using the dye straight from the bottle. Click on the images for a closer view.

my templates

my messy table

Quilters become Basket Makers for the Day

I arranged a basket making class for my quilting friends, my bobbin lace teacher and a bobbin lace friend. We had a great day and everyone was so pleased with their baskets that we are arranging another basket making day for next month. Here are a couple of collages showing some of us working and 4 of the completed baskets. Mine is the one with all the beads which is already in use as you can see. Click on the image for a closer view.

happy basket makers and teacher instructing

some completed baskets--the one with the beads is mine

I'm taking a shibori dye class with Glennis and that is where my time is being spent today. Check back here later if you want to see some of my results.

Crochet, weaving, boro and embroidery

All this was inspired by Jude's Contemporary Woven Boro class. It started out as a crocheted foundation with a ribbon type yarn. I did some weaving on one side with silk ends that I bought at the Houston Quilt Show. For the other side, I stitched together bits and pieces of the silk onto a foundation, basted it to the crocheted piece and then did some embroidery to bring it all together. The lining is a piece of fabric that I had decorated with the Shiva Paintstiks several years ago. It will be a small carry along bag for needles, pins and thread. It measures 6½" x 4½".

it started out this way

silk strips woven through crocheted foundation

bits and pieces of silk done in boro style

lining not yet stitched to foundation

this and that...

first bulbs to bloom

crocheting an open foundation for weaving

next 3 pics are of the wrappings that have been around trees and rocks for the last 6 months. no dramatic changes. the fabric pieces will be washed and used in future dye pots.

An easy to make Envelope Bag

Wendy has made some great envelope bags out of some of her weavings. They are so easy to do and I thought it would be a great way to use up some of the quilted pieces I have around from various projects. You have to start with a square and then it's a simple fold. I took a paper pieced block I had made in a class a few years back, stitched it to a piece of flannel and turned it right side out. I'll probably do a bit of stitching on this before I make the envelope shape but I wanted to show it to you. So here it is. Thank you Wendy.

an old paper-pieced block cut to about 13" square

stitched to a 13" piece of flannel, turned inside out and folded into envelope shape

front of bag--a little off center because I wanted to highlight the flower

 think I will add this little headless doll to the flap that I made a long while ago

 

   

                                         

back of envelope bag

Selvages Transformed...

From this:

selvages woven in a hoop--no foundation weaving

to this:

The fabric was a thrift store find a couple of weeks ago and I didn't see the little village it held until I opened up the fabric at home. Need to decide how I want to stitch this. The selvaged weaving was tea dyed to tone down the white. Click on the photos for a closer view.

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