Transforming One Warp into Several Fair Entries

Sue R entered several items in the "Wool, Fibers and Textiles" Division of the County Fair - a bag, table runner and "recycled textile".  They were made from a long (8 yard) warp she wove using selvedges she got from other quilters. 

 

The Eight Yard Textile

 

The weft for the recycled textile was the instructions found at the edges of fabric for a cloth book.  Other quilters wanted the parts of the fabric with the pictures, leaving the printed words.  Sue used them to weave this cloth. 

 

Sue's Recycled Textile

 

 

The table runner used a bright red cloth with black and white accents as weft.

 

  

Sue's Table Runner

 

 

 

Sue sewed this bag using part of the long warp.  To her, it was reminiscent of the ocean.  This bag was lined and finished with a strap.  A nice second place finisher. 

 

Sue's Bag

 

Rug for the Mud Room

Jackie brought another amazing rug to our meeting on Tuesday.  She wove this rug for her mud room and you won't believe the effort that went into this stunning piece.

First of all, the materials used in the rug are from worn out T-shirts, polo shirts and other knit tops from her family.  She designed her weft plan and then put it on a spread sheet to calculate how long each knit strip should be and when to sew in a dark piece for the meander pattern in the rug. That's right, each strip was calculated individually.

Jackie says she would never use red in her household furnishings, but since she had the red rug warp and it was going into the mud room, she went ahead and used it.  She didn't expect that the rug would swallow the red color so completely.  Yes, it does alter the overall color and appearance, but it certainly doesn't look red.

She encountered a few problems with various knits stretching differently and wasn't too encouraged that the rug would be flat, but somehow after it went over the breast beam, everything was nicely tamed.

 

She had more warp and more knit strips, so she wove two smaller rugs to go with the large one.  No dark pattern, but they are still interesting because of the varying fabric colors.