Wayback Weaving

One of the buried treasures I found in the last round of move-my-stuff was this small-loom weaving I did in a workshop at French General in… 2014. (Here)

The original intent was to make a pincushion - it only lacked having the tails woven in - so I ironed interfacing over the side tails to hold them in place, 

glued a small piece of Soft and Stable to the backing to (hopefully) keep pins from sticking me through, sewed it up and trimmed off the yarn tails - no weaving-in required!

Turning it right-side out was tough. It’s so small - only 2x4” - and the fabric so thick, I couldn’t do it by hand. Hemostat to the rescue! It was still a chore but it worked. 

Stuffed it with walnut shells, glued and hand-stitched the last side closed and voilá! Another tiny pincushion for my collection.

It’s lumpy and bumpy and not very tidy - it was definitely prettier as a flat weaving - but I like it and it’s useful. Bonus - it brings back some truly great memories. 

How I Spent My Weekend

Friday:

drive to LA with a buddy, have dinner at a great place, meet up with another buddy who moved away several months ago - reunion!! -

and take a necklace making workshop at French General as part of their Art of Craft weekend.

Saturday: play with grandgirls while one daughter goes to doctor (asthmatic bronchitis), and son/DIL go to the movies (Hobbit 2 - excellent!)

Sunday: drive back to LA,

intending to take just the tapestry weaving workshop -

this will be a pincushion once all the tails are woven in and the backing sewn on -

and end up staying for the iconic shrine workshop

when there's a late morning cancellation for the sold-out class. Score!

Hand-sewn antique pearls and gold rings,

flowers dipped in wax,

old book pages - with sheep!

Surprised me that I enjoyed this workshop so much. And next year? Pretty sure I'll be signing up for the entire weekend.

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Embroidery Quilt

 You ever look at an ad and say, ‘wow! I gotta have that!’?

It doesn’t happen to me often, especially since an awful lot of FB and (to a lesser degree) Instagram ads seem to be straight up scams these days, but I took one look at this and was in love. (Link to Missouri Star)

I learned to do embroidery and needlework from my mom when I was a kid, even before I learned to crochet. (I only started to quilt about 11 years ago, in comparison.)

A crib sheet I stitched when Rachel was born (here)

I’ve done it on and off over the decades years. 

Elvis Liberace!

The last big bouts were in 2006 when African embroidery was big with the spinning/weaving guild and I did several pieces, (here and here)

and around 2014 

with some French General prints I never completed. (Hmmm, maybe I can finish these at the same time …)

At first glance - the kit arrived today - I’m impressed with the quality. 

A strong, solid cardboard outer box protects the pretty hexagon tin

filled with thread, wood hoop, notions (including small scissors and a magnetic needle minder),

and my favorite part - peel and stick patterns that wash away when you’re done stitching. I know it shouldn’t be a big deal, but I’ve never liked having to trace designs before I can start playing with pretty colors and new stitches. Why yes, I am impatient and a smidge lazy…

I also bought the fabric kit because… impatient! I was going to try to talk somebody into doing this project with me (anybody want to ???) but MSQ is already sold out of the kits and they may not be back in stock until July! So glad I didn’t put off buying this like I started to do. This’ll be my TV stitching for the next few months.