Saturday, April 24, 2010

Book: Textile Arts from Southern Appalachia

A few weeks ago I ordered "Textile Arts from Southern Appalachia," by Kathleen Curtis Wilson from InterLibrary loan.  It's a wonderful book about women who wove overshot coverlets and lived in the Southwest Virgina, East Tennessee and North Carolina area in the 1800s. 

Today I picked the book up at the library and was flipping through it when I discovered a coverlet woven by one of any ancestors!  Plus there was a little history about the weaving tradition in my family -- news to me.   The coverlet from my family was woven by Eliza Kimball Greever, around 1830, near Tazewell, VA.  You can see a closeup photo of her coverlet here.  Each coverlet in the book has a brief history about the person who wove it and even some genealogy information. The book is a wonderful addition to any weaver's library.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Got Tree Photos...

I like trees.  I always say the two main reasons we moved to the Pacific Northwest are 1) Nordstroms and 2) trees.  I took my first tree photo when I was about 12 and won a blue ribbon for the photo at the county fair.  I've been hooked on tree photos ever since. 

I don't have any weaving photos to share even tho I have finished a few things.  Next time.  Meanwhile here are some tree photos from the Grand Canyon.  If you want to see more you can find my collection of tree photos from Northern Arizona here.





Sunday, April 4, 2010

How to decide....

that a scarf is long enough.  That's always a question I struggle with.  It has nothing to do with the actual length of the scarf, but rather with my boredom.  When I hit 60 inches I am really ready to be done.  Today I was at  65+ inches and ready to stop.  But I thought, I'll take a short break and come back and do a few more inches.  And off to check email I went...moments later I heard that all so familar sound that all cat owners know -- the hair ball coming out sound.  So I zip back to the dining room, where I park my table loom, to find Alice depositing her hair ball on the back beam of the table loom.  Okay, that scarf is done!

No damage to the loom, her deposit was held in place by the warp and I have covered the table with heavy plastic.  And no damage to Alice, who gave me "well, get busy and clean it up" look and then went on her way.  She's only yawning here but I thought it was an appropriate photo of the little devil.