Snow Day continued

A few meetings ago, Jackie gave some handwoven yardage to Marcy.  Marcy made pillows that enhanced her living room decor and brought one as a present for Jackie.  The dark blue sofa at Ingrid's

home  overwhelms the subtle colors from the pillow and  I should have looked for a more neutral backdrop to take the picture.  But having seen Marcy's living room colors, the pillows will be very much at home there. 

Marcy's husband frequents estate sales looking for old books.  He found this throw at a sale and purchased it because it was so intriguing.  After examining it, we decided it is huck embroidery done on what may have been handwoven cloth. The structure of the underlying cloth is used in a manner similar to counted cross stitch to embroider a design. It is quite a large piece and must have taken a long time to embroider.

Sue H. brought some examples of her wall hangings and rugs.  This striking piece is called wedge weave and was woven in a tapestry technique done by Navajo weavers. One of the features of this kind of weave is a wavy edge. Sue has left the working threads loose on this piece. She told us that the weaving starts at one corner and then progresses from there. 

The photo below is part of a rug sampler piece Sue wove using techniques in Peter Collingwood's rug book.  What a good idea to do a practice piece before you tackle an entire rug.

Snow Day

We had to do a bit of last minute planning on where to hold our April meeting.  Snow -- yes, snow was falling at our planned meeting location.  Some of us are prepared for such weather -- some of us aren't.  We were lucky that Ingrid agreed to host the meeting.  She lives at a bit lower elevation and it was simply raining a bit at her house.  Everyone managed to make the meeting except for Sharon, who had made a trip to California and was really hoping to join us.  The snow made her flee back to Nevada -- where it was snowing too!

Jackie H. brought in two new shawls that are light in weight and will make stunning summer wear.  The yellow shawl shown below is in a cotton and rayon mixture.  Someone will find this a fantastic light wrap for a summer picnic or a walk on the beach.    Jackie thinks the weave structure may be idiot's delight -- but couldn't remember for sure.

Her next shawl is a two block twill with some of the twill blocks outlined in a darker color.  This gives the shawl an optical appearance of being embossed, even when it is not.  This shawl was woven in cotton and silk.  The weft is a very fine boucle cotton and the shawl is as light as air.   

Gus brought in the shell that she sewed with the handspun silk yardage (in one of last month's posts it was still on the loom).  The shell is lined with a fine batiste and is ever so airy and light.  The variations in the handspun silk make this a very elegant wearable.  To do it justice, we really needed Gus to model it and maybe that can be arranged for a future post.

Stay tuned for more posts about our Snow Day meeting.