Playing with Blending Board to Make Roving for Spinning-Photos

 I  had purchased my Ashford Blending board with the money I had gotten from selling off some high dollar sewing thread for quilting. I also bought a few other items for spinning too at that time-so glad I did that-spinning tools swapped from thread-love it lol  I wish I could do that with more of my quilt supplies.

  I finally took this out of the box and set it up last night. Grabbed several bags of odd wools, those romeny locks, some sparkly metallics, silk noil and played. 
  The roving was a little loose so couldn't split it in half to spin like I would have liked so this is art yarn for sure. Perfect for some saori style weaving.
   This morning it came out much better. Playing with the colors is definately fun, and this morning I am using my bison diz (photos will enlarge) I love these fun tools they make me happy.
   I think the next roving I make I will use an even smaller hole in the diz  (Note: see my previous post for last nights photos and links for roving, diz explanations) There is a video on my previous post making roving on a carder and here is another video making roving with the blending board

Yesterday I did get the binding on-whew that took me more time than it should but it was slow going as I was working with three layers-the quilt, binding, and a batting strip. The corners are always a stress thing for me-like putting in a zipper-but I think they will be ok-have not started getting it ready for the hand sewing yet.
  

  I got the roasted dandelion and chicory roots in this week so brewed me up a french press full-and I love it!  and the biggest thing this is a true decaf not just partially decaf like coffee and the teas are. so I have a morning beverage again besides just the herbal teas.

Happy Weekend everyone-would you  believe we are still in the 80s with sunshine and no rain no frost? amazin lol

Creativity Wednesdays & Roving Made

Good morning Wednesday and Welcome to our Creativity Wednesdays where we share our art, crafts, gardening diy, recipes.

     Please stop back to check for those that have joined in and visit their posts. If you would like to add a link for your Creativity Wednesdays post please share that post's url in comments and I will post it here in the blog.

Friends:   Barbara at Pineland's Treasures sharing her                            daughter's quilt




   I do not have anything new to share this week. The country quilt is on the bed and being used, still carding romney locks and thoughts of getting that other quilt's binding machine sewn and hand stitched down. 
    I have had a busy week though.
   A long time friend came down to visit us from the Chicago area for a week, so I have been baking pies in the dutch oven outdoors in the "kitchen" area there and also grilling on the Weber. 
    We still have gorgeous weather, have not yet had a freeze not even a light one. Some days are windy and some are not. Loving fall this year, not even any cold rains as of yet and November is almost here.
   I do want to get out and gather a few fall leaves for an eco print project-I should do that soon. My beautiful zinnia patch brought in loads of butterflies over the summer and is now beginning to produce the seed heads- I have been out gathering them up every few days and letting them dry further-I will have loads of seeds for next year. I really enjoyed this patch so will be expanding it with all these seeds.
   I have started clearing weeds in the garden areas this week, lots and lots of wisteria to wind back into the fence-it really grew everywhere this summer. I am doing my best to not over do and not get my body in trouble. I need to remind myself a slow pace is best now. 
    I am taking my friend Carol's (from Missouri also) tip and saving up cardboard; once the weeds are cleared I can lay that down first and then with black plastic on top to kill weed seeds. I have some real trouble areas that I think this is a good and easy way for me. Also since I am planning a trip to Yellowstone end of next year's May this hopefully will keep things in check til I get back.


Late afternoon update:
      I have had it in my mind to make my own roving-the you tube videos make it look like so much fun especially with the new blending boards. I bought an Ashford and have yet to set it up. Being rather bored now and not happy with the spinning results and joins of 3 inch locks romney that I am working with-I thought the blending board is made with the same material as carders just larger so I checked you tube and there it was a video making roving with a carder. I tried it out just now with some unknown long wool and decided to give it a go. and wow this Is so much fun-the blending board would definately be nicer but this was doable for now. Because of the wool I am using this turned out like a very long rolag-so a little fragile in spots but this will be much easier to spin up now. and I got to use one of my diz to make the roving
    I think I will set up my blending board and have some more fun making beautiful rovings with this romney I am preparing with my flicker.  actually I should not call it a flicker but a flick carder here is what I have

   Tonight I made a couple more rovings and handspun them up with my drop spindle. I will definately set up my blending board for this process now. This bag of romney locks will be much more fun to get worked up now. I will dig out some silks, and other fibers to add to the batt, I can see some fun roving in the works

 Happy Creativity Wednesday!  How was your week?

Charm Bracelets an Update on Progress

    The internet is really an amazing tool, being a senior I am not into allot of tech stuff and gadgets but I do use and enjoy the internet to learn things, and especially to communicate with.
    I have a long time blog friend that is an artist and a jewelry maker. She has made me some lovely pieces over the years. We have been working together on setting up my charm bracelet with beads to reflect colors of the Yellowstone area.  I have 40 plus sterling charms that I will be adding to this-I think it will be amazing when finished.
     She found some very cool pieces and I had sent her little bags of all sorts of glass and stone beads. I also love the bracelets she picked out too. The Yellowstone one is brass with sterling silver over it as we wanted a strong piece for all those charms. She also picked up locking jump rings and sent me a you tube video on how they work to secure them-so charms will not be lost.
  Last night she was finishing up and sent me photos and I responded if I loved or didn't -a fun evening 
    We had a lovely yellow glass bead that the color is in Yellowstone but my eye just went right to that and not the whole piece. I also sent her an earthy bead-can see these to the right of photo but was also same shape. We finally decided to scrap it as I decided the shape was the biggest problem-too long and narrow.
   So this is what we ended up with and I love it! The second photo is my wolf bracelet. I really wanted to put the carved wolf print on deer antler into a jewelry piece, and I bought the sterling pine needle charm that was handmade by an artist but these were too large for the Yellowstone bracelet so I asked my friend to set up a wolf bracelet. I love what she did especially the colors. There are several Native American beads in the bracelet. I will be adding a couple of sterling charms to this one; a pine cone and one or two wolves.

  My friend lives in California and will be sending these out in the mail back to me tomorrow-so of course I can't wait to see these in person and start adding all my Yellowstone inspired charms

My friend just posted another photo-can really see the beads well in this one

  I need to search still for a orange bead too

Creativity Wednesdays & Saori Weaving

Welcome to Creativity Wednesday: where we share our art and crafts with each other.
     To share your post please post the url to your blog post into comments and I will set up a link here on this post. 


Friends Sharing:

     Barbara at Pinelands Treasures  

Drop -Spindling a Lovely Roving

                        My Post-Saori Weaving

   I don't have a new project to share this week, as I am back to carding with the flicker and spinning romney locks and I am also still working on the hand sewing of the binding for the country quilt. I have one more quilt to get the binding on and then I will start working on my Yellowstone inspired quilt. It is working out well to switch off from spinning and hand sewing projects this past week. In my previous post I did share my latest handspun yarn. I am thinking of weaving a narrow scarf with this.

   

  I thought I would share a little information about saori weaving. 
       I want to try this with my handspuns and hand dyed yarns. Saori is a style of weaving that is free form-no rules, no perfection, just enjoy the experience of weaving and then create with your woven fabric.
  Saori is a Japanese technique and concept. Here is a link that shows the timeline and history, and in the left column links for it's philosophy.

    Saori Slogans
 1) Consider the differences between a machine and a human being.
2) Be bold and adventurous.
3) Let’s look out through eyes that shine.
4) Inspire one another, and everyone in the group.

There is one book that I know of that has been translated to English, all the pattern books so far are only in Japanese. Many say that the photos are so good that one can figure out the patterns-I am not so good at that though-figuring the measurements especially. A couple years ago-wow time just passes us by doesn't it??-I picked up some patterns for handwoven cloth from back in the '70s that I hope to use for garments.

There are saori looms and if I was younger and a new weaver I would definately consider purchasing one of the 4 harness looms-they have many neat improvements on this loom that makes it easier to thread especially. However, saori is a method so any loom will work. 

     The whole concept to me for weaving saori is to make beautiful fabric that is not perfect or trying to look like commercial fabrics and to enjoy weaving with no rules.

     I thought I would share a few blogs and links to inspire, and I hope you will visit at least some of these for the photos,since these are all from others works I did not want to infringe on their copyright by copy and paste:

      Centering with Fiber   this is a favorite blog of mine

      Curious Weaver

           Weaving a Life

      On Etsy lots of Saori

         On Etsy Saori clothing

     On Pinterest Saori Clothing

          Google Search

Saori reminds me a little bit of my hippy days back in the '60s. The clothing is handmade, free, happy. Saori can be peasant type clothing, or can be sewn into something more sophisticated. One of my goals getting back into weaving again is to make at least one saori garment.

Happy Creativity Wednesdays everyone.

All Spun Up

Didn't this spin up pretty? (photo will enlarge) 
      I finished it up last night and just wetted it down to set. After spinning this and before that my romney locks I am gaining confidence with my drop spindle. I may just try out the bison roving next-can you tell I am getting bored with the romney locks lol especially what is left is much shorter around 3 to 4 inches instead of the 6 inch or more-but it gives me more practice with my joins-as I am not always real good with that
   Thanks Barbara this was fun

Don't Ya Just Love Getting Fun Mail??

  Most of my fabrics for my Yellowstone inspired quilt arrived toady along with bison roving that I had found on Etsy-this bison is 100%  and soooo much nicer and half the price from what I purchased a small amount of on ebay a few months ago. She also sent me a nice sample of alpaca 70% with bison 30% roving to try. Most of  the bison I have looked at is mixed with another fiber to stretch it. I have alpaca here so I think I will be mixing the fiber I bought on ebay. This is soooo soft and bison has no lanolin so I think alpaca is a good fiber to mix it with. photos will enlarge
  and here is a link to her website I enjoyed reading about her story

Creativity Wednesdays

Happy Creative day everyone. What have you all been working on??


Today is our special day to share our art and crafts, please put a link to your Creativity Wednesdays post in comments and I will link you up here in my blog. 

Friends to visit:
   Barbara at Pineland's Treasure handspun to knitted                                                                 to felted

   Tammy at T's Daily Treasures sea themed crochet

   Carol at SilverSprings Acres  fall wreath 




                   Another Quilt in the Works

     As you can see on my previous posts I have been working on the binding for my country style quilt-I was tired and not up to par so cut what I shouldn't have. I replaced the two squares and folded my binding twice to make a larger looking binding and it looks so well on this quilt. It is one of the ways our ancestors used to bind their quilts by bringing the backing to the front to form the binding. I really love this look too.
    The hand sewing is slow going do to my left hand-but I am working on it a little each day.  (all photos will enlarge just click on them for better viewing)

  I am so bad about jumping around from craft to craft-but that's what I have always done.  So while working on this I remembered I still had allot of flannel cottons with the wilderness scenes that I had purchased from a quilt shop many years ago. I had used about half of it for a quilt for my husband and still have quite a bit left. So  dug this out and thinking-Wow this is a really good base for making a Yellowstone inspired quilt. I am collecting sterling charms for a Yellowstone bracelet so why not a quilt too? lol
   So I went shopping online mostly on Etsy and found some pieces that should work out well with what I have, and I still have batting for this project in my stash too. I found fabrics with moose, deer, animal paw prints, pine needles, and one bison fabric. There is a new line of Hoffman bali batiks out with bison prints-which I totally loved--but needed flannel cotton.
     I usually go super easy for quilt blocks and have made lots of gift quilts with the original Turning 20 pattern. I wanted something a little different so searched for big block easy quilt patterns online.
    I found a shop on Etsy that had patterns I really liked but thought $9.00 for pdf pattern that I then have to use my own paper and ink was a bit much. Especially after really looking at the pattern one of the ones I liked was a modification of the Turning 20 quilt-all she did was not attach that top piece over the two bottom quilt pieces and then turn them around different and alternate the two pieces-I could do that without using her modified pattern, and is actually a copy of the Turning 20 in my opinion.

    I ended up finding a free pattern that I liked-sorry I forgot to save the link and now I can't find it again. I had saved the photo though and when you enlarge it you can read all the information you need.

This quilt makes into a 50" by 60" and I want to make a queen size or a bit larger. So ran off several copies of the pattern and then cut up the rows and spent some time planning out a larger quilt-here is the result:

  I am pleased with it-this will be 108" long by 100" and will probably add borders.  The numbers on the pattern go with fabric choices in the original pattern-I am going to have more fabric choices so will need to decide how I want to cut out the fabrics-I am thinking I will just go row by row. These are all big pieces with all being 12 1/2" tall plus the measurement on the pattern.  I want the fabrics to be showcased so I think this will work out nice.

  Here are fabrics I have in my stash and after this photo I found a couple more I could use that pick up these colors:

 

     I had learned of a fabric shop in West Yellowstone that is in walking distance of the motel we want to stay in next year May when a friend and I will visit the park.  She is on Etsy and has an online site too. I picked up a few fabric pieces and then asked her about bison fiber to spin-she is out til Spring-but she gave me a link to an etsy shop in Bozeman I think it was that has it now-so I have that coming in too-fun mail will be arriving by end of week.

   Don't ya just love shopping online? I really do especially since we live so rural and would have to drive over an hour each way to find a shop.

   Enjoy creating!!

Update on Quilt

 I seemed to have kept getting interrupted today with phone calls etc, but I did get this mistake of mine thought through and fixed-so that's a good thing.

  There was really no way around it-the blocks I had cut too short needed to come out and new ones stitched back in-so good thing I happened to have just a handful left of these 4 inch squares.
    That took more time than one would think as there was allot of seams to rip apart so these two pieces could come out of the quilt and then new ones sewn back in.

   So for the binding I was folding the edge of the backing in half and then half again and then half again which made a nice narrow hem-however the four corners were so bulky. Not knowing how I was going to handle this, I folded in half-pinned this time and half again and then pinned and wow! I love this look much better! The wider binding looks better on this country quilt and best of all the corners are no longer super bulky. Not mitered of course as I am keeping this simple lol  So I have it all pinned now ready to hand sew except for one more side.
   I am sitting on the floor doing this and needed a break. So mistake fixed happy dancin.
  Here are photos of two corners-after hand stitching down the binding I am thinking about perhaps doing a little embroidery stitch over the edge.  click to enlarge photos

and here are some binding tips from my friend Carole that she shared with me

Happy Mail Today & Lots of It

Don't ya just love mail??-I love getting mail especially happy  mail and today I got two days worth since I was not able to get to the post office yesterday.

For the last couple of months I have been having fun hunting for sterling charms for my Yellowstone bracelet-this keeps me grounded in anticipation for my trip next year May. I also am collecting a few charms that go with Peggy Henderson's Yellowstone book series. Last weekend I found charms that I had been hunting for along with a couple real surprises-the horse and foal and the powder horn.

I traded with friend Barbara for this romney roving to spin-I will play with this on my wheel, I also bought the vintage textile pins after reading how Barbara made a center pull ball with hers. It ended up being cheaper to buy this lot of 8 instead of just 1 so that's why so many-and I love these anyways. I also follow an author Bethany Claire time travel romance novels set in Scotland and she sent me a birthday gift-the notebook-which will be fun to use.

just click for photos to enlarge

Oh My I Cut Something Wrong

  The other day I decided to work on the binding for my country style quilt. I had made the backing from all those 4 inch squares.  This is an old method of binding where you bring the back to the front to form the binding.
   I have done several quilts this way and I always struggle with the corners-they are super bulky so have to be cut down and for me folded several times to look right.
  I have been dealing with an allergy "attack" for the last few weeks now which leaves me "spacey" do to blocked and draining ears. I am not one to sit around and do nothing so I thought this would be an easy project to get finished.
   

Wrong lol  Instead of unfolding everything and checking that corner point I just started cutting-so now I have a mess on my hands and need to figure out what to do-well I need to sew on more fabric that's for sure. I have let this sit for a few days so now is the day to tackle this.
   I may just need to take apart a four square block and replace that-but that also involves undoing a couple of tied knots that holds the quilt together that I don't really want to do. 
  Larry always says don't do stuff like this unless your feeling good enough to tackle it-so true lol
  I think this will be my challenge today especially since it is taking up space on my living room floor.
  Stay tuned

Happy Friday everyone

Creativity Wednesdays & Another Dye Pot and Spinning

Good morning,
   I am posting early to give us all an extra day to post especially our International friends  

  I must apologize but me and these linky sites are just not getting along lol 
    Last week I managed to get it to work but could not get the links to appear on my post you had to visit the linky site.
    This morning I am doing the same thing but the codes are not working at all-a senior moment for sure since I just am not good at figuring these things out 
   so enough of all that for now--please post your Creativity Wednesdays url into comments and I will post them into the blog post here-thanks so much for visiting and participating.


Friends to visit:

  Carol at SilverSpring Acres the Home of my Heart 
     Carol shares a garment she made for her furry friend



           My Post: More in the Dye Pot & Spinning

        Last week I had another dye day, something new for me using natural dye extracts.  This process had an extra step so it was longer this time for my cottons. Next time I will have less in the dye pot, even though I stirred things around constantly I got a few dye imperfections on a couple of the blouses. Still pleased with the results I will rinse them well soon. Thinking of eco printing over a couple of them to see what may happen-not sure if I will lose the dye color doing that-but nothing experimented with nothing gained I always say.
    I used Quebracho red from Earth Hues. Here are a few photos: (click to enlarge) The last photo shows the blouses dry.

Remember that basket of romney locks?  I finished spinning all the longest locks which were really long up to 6" and the shorter ones 3 and 4 inches I left for the next spinning.
     I ended up with two niddy noddy's full.  Yesterday I brought out the rest of the white romney about a half of a pillowcase full all washed up and ready to hand flick and then spin.  Most of this romney is soooo soft, loving it.

I am quite pleased with my hand spindling (is that a word lol)  My goal for the last of this white romney is to spin my yarn even finer-this will be a little more tedious I think since the locks are much shorter. I am enjoying the process and strive for at least an hour a day of spinning to improve-and to make a dent in all this wool I bought to spin over the last couple of years-what was I thinking lol  but I love it all-the whole process. This romney will be my first from raw wool to spun to dyed. Have not decided on what color yet-I do have several new natural dyes that I have yet to try

I hope you will check back and visit all those that link up too for Creativity Wednesdays