FRIENDSHIP…..

Friends Are The People Who Know The Words To The Song In Your Heart……

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I am so fortunate to have had many friends in my life that definitely know the words to the song in my heart.  And something that makes me very sad is when one of them is going through something difficult in their lives.  You know that you can’t “fix” it for them but all the same you somehow want to help build them up and encourage them that they will get through this hardship.

Today I wanted to share a weaving project that was meant to do just that.  A friend of mine was going through something tough and was feeling pretty discouraged and I began to try to think of something that might cheer her up.  

I decided I wanted to try to weave something colorful and cheerful for my friend.  I was just finishing up a project on one of my floor looms that had some leftover dark brown cottolin warp threads, so I decided to try an experiment.  This purse was the result of that experiment. 

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 I knew my friend loved very colorful things so I knew that the purse would need to have lots of color.  I went through a bunch of leftover yarns that I had from other projects and made a pile of them by my loom and then began weaving random  patterns.    This is how it looked on the loom during the weaving process.     

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There was no rhyme or reason to how I laid the colors or patterns out, this was just random treadling and colorful playing in my threads.

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I really did not even try to repeat or keep track of any of the patterns I was weaving.

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Once I felt like I had a big enough piece woven to make a small purse I stopped weaving.  Of course I also stopped because I ran out of warp 🙂

At this point I really wasn’t quite sure if this was going to look like the cute little purse that I had envisioned.  I did the finishing wash and waited for it to dry to see if this was going to be a big enough piece to make the purse.

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During this same time period I had been experimenting with dyeing some silk scarves.  I went through some of my finished pieces and picked this one to use for the lining of the purse.

 

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As I began the construction of the purse I decided it definitely needed some

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embellishments, so I added the mirrored and hand buttonhole stitched circles and the scroll that I had made by crocheting together multiple threads.  I added a button and closure threads that had been braided and sewn into the flap.  

I twisted a bunch of the leftover weaving threads together, putting a knot at each end to make a tassel, and hand sewed it onto the purse for the strap.

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Before sewing the lining into the purse I stamped it with this friendship saying and the music notes on each side.   I heat set the printing to make sure it was permanent.  

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My experiment was now complete and I was anxious to wrap it up pretty and give to my friend.  

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I was so glad to have something to give to her that I had handmade to brighten her day.  She is still very much in my daily thoughts and prayers.  Even though we now live many miles apart we still keep in contact and are still a part of each others lives.   

I hope this article inspires you to make something beautiful, and treasure your friendships! 

Until next time……..

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….I Wish You Peace.

 

BRINGING A NEW ‘BABY’ HOME SATURDAY!!

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Just ordered my new loom and will be picking it up on Saturday!!  I purchased the 36″ Mighty Wolf  by Schacht,  an 8 harness, 10 treadle Floor Loom.   As I researched this loom I was quite impressed by the features.  The treadles are not a direct tie up style.

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There are slots in the wood of each treadle so that you just slide the tie up cords into the desired treadle slot to “tie it up” to that particular shaft (harness).  So easy!  Another feature I though would be great is that each of the heddle shafts can be completely lifted out of the loom to add in or take out extra heddles.  It can be laid on the table to work on, so no more finagling with the bars while the shafts are on the loom and consequently dropping heddles on the floor or  worse, realizing you have missed threading one of the heddle bottoms after you have finished putting them on.  Of course, that always ends up being the  50th heddle out of the hundred that you have put on, way back in the middle of the shaft!  Hate to admit it but, yes, that has happened to me a couple of times with the Wolf Pup loom.

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I already own the Wolf Pup, 4 harness, 4 treadle, 18″ loom by Schacht (pictured above).    It has been a great little workhorse, but I am looking forward to the ability to do more complicated patterns with the 8 harness model and the much wider 36″ loom.  Like the Wolf Pup the new loom has the ability to be folded up for storage with or without a warp on the loom.  For anyone that has limited space for their equipment this is a great feature.

New pics to follow soon…..

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                                                         until then I wish you Peace……….