Treasure #3

It is hard to see the sample, but it is a huck weave.

Another treasure of mine is the book"A Handweaver's Pattern Book" by Marguerite Davison.  I bought this copy off of E-bay.  It is copyright 1975.  The reason I bought this copy, was that someone had written notes all the way through it and included extra papers, one titled "7 Projects in Rosepath."  After I got the book, one of the pages was a sample page with all the information included with the sample.  I love the history of the book.  I also love the history of old looms.  Once on E-bay someone was selling an old Bergman loom and on the information listed they said it was made in Wisconsin.  I waited a couple of days and then just couldn't stand it any longer and I e-mailed the seller to let him know that the Bergman loom was made in Washington, not Wisconsin.  I know it is a small matter but it was important to me, probably not to anyone else!

My husband just went down to the hardware store to get more paint for the living room.  We refinished our hardwood floors this summer and while our furniture was out of the room we thought we would paint the living room.  But first we thought we would remove the wallpaper in the dining room and paint there first.  That was a big mistake, took us 2 days to remove paper, so after painting dining room, we thought the living room didn't look that bad and we would just touch it up.   The paint the we used a few years ago was called, "fuzzy sheep."  I think it is right that a weaver should have a living room with fuzzy sheep paint.
Amy

new project

On the "net" yesterday, I found a really cute project to make so thought I could whip it up last night. I bought the supplies yesterday to make three of these but after I made one, it didn't work out  so now I either have to ditch it or rip it out and try again. I think I may try it once more and then, if it doesn't work, save the supplies for something else. I guess I'm like a lot of people who want it to be right on the first try when I know things get better with practice.

I've been cutting scraps of my card-making paper into pieces that are 4x5 up to 6x6 and then I'm tossing the smaller or odd size pieces but I'm not throwing them away, I'll take them to the elementary school near me for kids to use in art projects.  I love paper and have boxes and boxes of it but have decided to stop buying and start using. Most of my supplies for cards and scrapbooking are like this. Sometimes, I even go into stores and can't find anything to buy that I don't already have so have to start cutting down.  Maybe I'll even get some cards made to share with you soon.

gleanings from the garden

love early mornings when it is just me, the dogs, and quiet and this morning I spent a lot of time in my garden, pulling weeds, deadheading blooms and harvesting.....my first cucumber today!....a little basket of beans, some potatoes and an onion.....then I picked 3 bundles of flowers to dry and a basket full of leaves, vines and blooms to press to dry.   I am teaching a class in September called, Gifts from the Garden and intend on making a wreath to give away, some cards with the pressed blooms and will go along with some homemade jam and showing how to save seeds for gifts.  I have been a member of Master Gardeners for several years and do love to teach.   We have a demonstration garden where I spend all my Tuesday mornings and that is the setting for our summer classes.   It is beautiful and we get good attendance....would love to think it is mine and others wonderful classes but sure part is that they are all free...I love free, don't you?

Friday

Today I took my dishtowels off the loom.  I will have to work on them to try to correct some of the mistakes.  I hope that I will have about 2 good ones to donate for our luncheon.  At our luncheon we usually have a basket of things so that people can buy tickets for a raffle.  Now I am thinking about my next warp.  I have some wool rug yarn that a friend gave me and I am trying to think of what I want to do with it.  There is a lot of red and a couple of cones of black.  I am thinking about using some wool fabric with it to make a rug, will have to think about it for awhile.  I have also started to rewarp on my Allen loom.  I replaced the reed and the apron and I am hoping to rewarp some rug warp and make some bags.  I am going to try to get  that started this weekend.  Today I took my two grandsons to McDonald's for lunch and then we went to see the new Smurf movie.  We watched it in 3-D and I enjoyed it too.  I didn't buy anything at the movie for snacks, so we stopped at Mickeys for McFlurries, I had a coupon for buy one get one free.  I like anything free!

Another treasure

I found a whole set for bobbin lace at Goodwill.  Now I don't even do bobbin lace but I couldn't just leave it there.  So do any of you do bobbin lace?  Let me know if you would like to have the set.  I think it is really for a beginner-so maybe you'd just like to try it.

Treasures

All my sisters and I like a good treasure find at Goodwill or a thrift shop.  One day my husband and I were downtown where they were having antique booths on the sidewalk.  We had just arrived at the first one and I found a closed box.  When I opened it I discovered two shuttles and about 25 bobbins.  Now there are not many weavers around my area, that I know about, and finding these was a real find.  My husband asked the seller how much they were and to my surprise she said $3.00.  I had my money out quickly.  These bobbins and shuttles are what I use the most.  When I looked at the bobbins closely I realized that they were not really bobbins, but the reels from film.  The kind of film no one uses anymore and is called vintage on e-bay.  They work like a charm with my two Hammett shuttles.  They sometimes go a little too fast and tangle around the shaft, but it  really isn't a problem.  Just one of the many treasures I have found.  Have you found a treasure?

family reunion

We had the most wonderful family reunion over the weekend. One sister lives on a farm so she hosted the party. Some families camped out in her pasture over night so they could stay two days. We had somewhere around 75 people attend, 82 degree sunny weather and so many fun things to do such as a small pool for the toddlers, a slip and slide, a jumping castle, home made ice cream, art projects, a chili cook off and a lot more. It was the best family reunion we've ever had or been to so I'd rate it as an A+.

Can you smell that?

Apricot/pineapple jam...yum.....my grandaughter gave me apricots and I served many at our family reunion, but the rest went into the jam and it smells so wonderful and will taste very good this winter on some pancakes.   I can remember our Mom saying that her Mom put apricots, pineapple and walnuts into hers but I have never tried the nuts....afraid I might mess up a good thing.   I picked enough raspberries today to fill two cereal bowls and we had them for dinner and little else....seemed like a balanced diet to me.  When we were children we lived off the farm....our own milk, butter, meat, veggies, canned fruit etc. etc...our Mom even made her own cottage cheese.   I can still see her grocery list with sugar, flour, coffee and toilet tissue on it and little else.....but we wanted 'store bought' things.....I wanted some twinkies and maybe a ding dong or two.......looking back I realize we ate organic, healthy, gourmet food.....but we didn't know it.   Now it is trendy to grow your own food and make your own apricot jam...and eat organic, healthy, gourmet food....we are finally with the 'in' crowd.

Weaving and Gardening

This morning my husband harvested some of his green beans.  He planted a heirloom variety and they are big and taste great.  He spent part of his morning putting them in the freezer.  He also picked a small bowl of red raspberries.  On Mondays I volunteer at two different places, in the morning I am at an assisted living leading an exercise group and later I am at RSVP.  RSVP stands for Retired Seniors Volunteer Program, I do data entry for them.  Then this afternoon I spent some time weaving.  I am at the end of my warp for my dishtowels, so I thought I would weave some Christmas trees.  Yes, I know it is July.  This pattern is from weave-away.blogspot.com The pattern is in one of her old posts.  The only thing I did different was to not do the last two treadles.  I hope to make these into Christmas ornaments by cutting between every fourth or fifth tree.  I may even put a star on one tree in each set with fabric paint.  I was not sure about putting these trees on the blog since if I don't get them into ornaments, I am sure my sisters will let me know.

Reunion

Door to her potting shed

Garden and potting shed

We spent the weekend at my sister's house having a family reunion.  I am not sure how many people were there, but there were a lot.  Some people when they have family reunions, just meet and talk but not us..  There was an inflatable jumping toy, slippy slide and a treasure hunt for the kids.  We made birdhouses and ice cream with two plastic bags.  We had a cook off with 11 people entering.  And of course we ate and ate.  While we were there I took some pictures of my sister's garden.

Pets

The Cat

Do you have pets?  We seem to collect them.  Our dog is a whippet mix that we got from the pound about 11 years ago.  She is old and just likes to lay around.  However if offered a walk she will lead me right to the park, she knows the way.  We also have 2 cats.  One is named "the cat", he use to live with our neighbors but when they moved a few blocks away, he would just keep coming back, so we started feeding him and the rest is history.  He is my husband's cat and rarely has anything to do with me.

Lokey or Luke

Henry, when he was little

Our other cat was my daughter's cat, when she moved back into our house she came with a cat.  But when she left, she left without a cat.  He likes to lay around in the basement family room.  He is known for his loud cry.  He also loves everyone except the dog.  About 16 months ago my son got a golden retriever.  So 4 days a week we dog sit Henry.  Henry use to eat socks but he has grown out of that.  Now he will grab anything to get you to chase him. He loves to play but our other dog doesn't really like it so much.  He is one of the biggest golden retrievers I have ever seen.  People tell us that they don't grow up until the are at least 2, so we have hopes for him.  He loves to come to our house and really doesn't like to leave when my son comes.

Berry Good

I picked a small serving bowl of summer raspberries today and a little cereal bowl of black cap raspberries.   They seem small and a bit dry so perhaps they need more water and a bit of fert......I say 'they' but I only have one bush.....is a reminder that our grandmother grew them, picked and sold them and it was her only way of having a little money.   Our parents grew them too and we made jelly out of them for the winter.   It was delish...my little strawberry patch is coming to the end of it's harvest and they have been so tasty.   Today I pulled some kohlrabi and peeled and sliced it with a rusty garden tool.....after washing it was great and I saved a trip to the kitchen.  When my grandkids were small I always had them pull carrots and wipe them on their pantslegs...and told them they were much sweeter that way......the carrots...not the grandkids..

Mug Rugs

I belong to an organization that gives scholarships to women going into education.  Each year one group is the host for a luncheon.  This year is our turn.  I suggested that we could do a weaving theme and call it "Weaving Excellence with ADK".  So we are putting baskets on the table and weaving Swedish hearts with candy for favors.  I volunteered to make mug rugs for everyone.  So far I have about 50 finished.  They are made with rug warp.  For some of them I warped for 3 mug rugs and ran the shuttle across all three, then I cut them apart to have fringe around all four sides.  Then I zig-zagged around the edges.  I don't know how many more I will have to make but it is a good thing that the luncheon isn't until October.

chiming in

What a wonderful surprise I got when I just now got on the computer to see that we have a blog! I've been on vacation to the Pacific Shore - speaking of Shores - and got home today.  I am the middle sister and I'm very interested in paper crafts, rubber stamping, teaching,  knitting, sewing, reading my Kindle and many other crafty things. I will be adding my fav list as soon as I get done reading my 308 emails I received while I was gone. Happy Birthday to the little sister in the family.

Weaving dishtowels & mug rugs

I have been weaving dishtowels from Handwoven May/June 2000, they are cute but I am making so many mistakes that they will probably be just my dishtowels.  First I had a huge threading error which I corrected after I wove the first one.  Now the only errors I seem to be making are weaving errors.  It seems that I need to make sure that I am not getting too close to the reed, because that is where I am making the errors.

I am the 'big' sister and have wanted a blog for a long time, simply because I always have way too much to say, so thank you to our 'little' sister, whose birthday is today, for beginning one for us.   I have already flubbed up my first post so will try to improve.   And why did we name us from Shore to Shore....we live only miles from each other, but our maiden name was Shore.    I am the gardener.  I must have some soil to dig in, and I believe it is in my genes, or jeans, whichever is proper for the day.   Our grandmother was a gardener and one of my first memories of her was her cutting off a piece of a rose and sticking it into the soil and then putting a Mason jar over the top to create another rose.   I was so impressed....and still am with propogation, whether it is the miracle of the seed, a clump you lift from the soil or a piece of plant material that you root.

Beginnings

Weaving

We are three sisters who enjoy doing a variety of things.  My favorite is weaving.  I have only been weaving for about 2 years.  I bought my first loom, a little Rasmussen table loom with a set up to make it into a floor loom.  I love the look of the loom, but have had trouble warping it.  I have always warped it from the back to the front because of the shape of the loom, but this continues to cause me problems.  My second loom is a 52 inch Gilmore.  It was probably made in the 1970's.  I can warp it from the front to the back with a great deal of success.  It continues to be my favorite loom, easy to use and I can put on large warps with it.  I also have a small Allen loom.  I had hoped to make rugs with this loom, since my jack loom doesn't do a tight weave, but it has required some repair, my husband replaced the beater bar and the dowels.  I have also ordered a new reed and I am waiting for it to be delivered.