been away from here too long

always like to post what I am doing outside...but that has been near impossible with winter...still some ice on the ground and mud too, but this afternoon I got out into the sun in a southern exposure and raked up pine cones.....felt wonderful and is exactly where I need to be.....it was dessert for me after a great lunch with my sisters.....though we tried a new spot and  it was hard to hear in there.....small, tile on the floor, loud music and don't think we will be back there.    I have been working on a heart project that will be installed in our demonstration garden....the back of the garden is a big green building and the heart will get mounted there...it measures 30 inches across...and is beautiful....don't want to think about how much money I spent on glue....

Getting Ready for Sale

Busy twisting the fringe on this scarf

My husband is finishing up a run of rugs. He just finished
8 rugs for a friend, made from the pjs from her mom.

I am about to tie on another warp on the loom in the
dining room. This is the warp that my husband used to make
two scarves.

The gold tencel scarves are rolling on the beam. One is
done and I have about 20 inches done on another.
Hopefully these will be done for the sale too.

Some of my things laid out on my bed, ready to be priced.
This doesn't look like much, but we have several
rugs also.

Every morning I check out my favorite blogs and see if anyone has written anything new. Of course I always hope that many people have updated their blogs. But then I realize that I haven't written anything since January and I start to feel some guilt. So what is happening at our house. The biggest news is that Henry, the golden retriever, likes to bite his toe nails. We have never had a dog who did this. The good news is that we never have to have them clipped. But the bad news is that this week he chewed just a little too far and spent a couple of days limping. See this is why I haven't written much, nothing much is happening. On the weaving front we are getting ready for a sale on February 16.
Amy

Catching up

These are little bags that I filled with lavender and
made a kumihimo cording for the tie. The fabric
is also handwoven

Look at those Swedish stars!

Yes I am catching up with everything since I have been sick for the last week. I was sick last month with stomach flu and couldn't eat for 3 days and this month I have had a deep ugly cough. Not sure what could be waiting for me in February. I have been working on a few things. My husband and I are doing a little bazaar in a couple weeks and although we have many rugs, we don't have much else. So I "tied one on" and replaced the blue bamboo warp with gold tencel and I am now doing advancing twill in bamboo and tencel.
Amy

More Sewing

What do you do when your husband starts weaving a scarf and stops in the
middle? You cut it apart and make a pillow. 

What do you do when your husband makes placemats that shrink in the
wash? You make a tote. This is a little wimpy one, not sure if I should
line it, put a piece of plastic in the bottom and just leave it as a
wimpy tote.

See most of my sewing seems to be because of my husband. If you are like me you hate to throw any handwoven fabric away, no matter how small it is, so it has to be repurposed.
Amy

Woven Bags

I think that every granddaughter will love "Papa's Puppets." They will cherish them and remember their grandfather.

The blue ones in the back have a handle that is sewn
from the bottom all the way up. Those 2 blue ones will
not have a closure on them, I am leaving them open. The others
will have some type of closure. 

I need to get busy finishing up some of my woven things, I have rugs to hem, placemats to hem, bibs need bias binding and 5 bags that need various things finished. Some need closures, some need handles and they all need lining inside. I have been avoiding this because all the linings have to be stitched by hand. I really hate to stitch by hand and I may still try to machine sew a few, we will see.

Winter

especially hard this year....so dark, so dreary...little sun it seems and snow and ice everywhere.......but that should make us work harder on all those projects that we need to start or have already begun.    My hubby passed away on November 29th and much of my days have been filled with activities that center around this bad time...so many thank you cards to send out and haven't even begun the 'business' part of this time in my life......I am reading a book right now called There's More to Me than I've Used Yet and it says never refer to our spouses' dying as "I have lost my husband"....we know exactly where they are...not lost........at any rate one of the projects I have been working on are sock puppets made out of his socks.....needed 14 of them to pass on to all the grandaughters in the family...and they are done and properly labeled too thanks to my sister Gail, who made wonderful labels with the title "Papa Puppets"...Thank you Gail......and Amy, loved seeing that orange growing in your house and of course so proud of all your weaving...lovely......

Advancing twill

I started an advancing twill scarf and I made a mistake. In my defense the mistake was really in the directions. Since I am not that good of a weaver, I didn't realize my mistake until I wondered why I had 8 extra threads. I should have looked carefully at the draft and I would have seen why I had 8 threads left over but I thought everything looked good, so I removed the 8 threads. Then after weaving a small sample, I knew I needed those eight threads. I corrected the draft, cut off the sample and added the 8 threads. Now I can restart my scarf. I also have a roll of placemats that need to be cut and sewed. These are the ones that my husband made. We also celebrated New Years by eating an orange that my husband grew on his orange tree. That probably wouldn't be so unusual if we lived where orange trees grow but this is an indoor little tree. We do take it outside when it is summer. By the way, the orange was delicious and we have another that just needs to get a little bit riper. Today we are babysitting our grandsons and they are outside playing with the neighbor girls. I love it because my 6 year old grandson calls them, "the ladies." I don't know if that is what they told him to call them but I think it is cute.
Happy New Year,

Our orange, just before we picked it.

Looks good doesn't it, but if you look carefully you can
see that the pattern isn't centered. 

Roll of placemats

Amy