Creativity Exercise

Robin at Rurification posted a creativity exercise. Find 10 beautiful things in your home. Photograph them or describe them.

Here's a mosaic of my ten things for tonight:
A photo of my grandparents in their old age. A peach from my friend's tree.


Grainlines on the faux floor. Oregano blooms salvaged from today's trimming by my five year old.

A print of a woman sheaving (?) grain in a field. A toy dino--check out the details!

Paintbrushes--indicators of a job now done. Etched glass.


A tiny turtle that used to sit in my great aunt's office. Now it cuddles up with one of my plants. Some clay creations from my son.


Sometimes the trick of looking for beauty is seeing what is already here. Thanks Robin!

Miscellaneous Collection of Stuff

My great aunts are wonderful. Every time one of them travels this way by car I receive gifts. This time, I got a new (to me) sewing desk and a new (to me) old sewing machine. Here's the new desk all set up. It looks nice at this point.







This photo is of my old desk. The blue blob is covering my sewing machine to protect it from the lint from the wool yarn I've been rewinding. The pile of stuff to the left of the machine--see the pink fabric?--well, that's my pile of stuff. It's something of an archeological monument....the deeper you dig, you unearth projects from further back in time. Periodically, I do try and clean my desk. It's pretty bad right now. The wooden structure in front of the desk is one of my spinning wheels. It's only there because I was setting up the new desk and needed space to move.



Even though my sewing desk is piled high with past projects, I managed to sew my three quilt squares for July. Again, I am amazed at how quickly these blocks with "big" pieces go together.















And here's a piece of weaving. It's a small piece, only 2" wide, but I think it's pretty cool.

It is a combination of balanced plain weave, huck lace and warp faced weaving. It's like weaving an inkle band in the middle of a bit of lace.

I came across the idea in a collection of old weaving newsletters with swatches. I bought the papers at The Fiber Event a few years ago. Every now and then I pull out the binder where I store them and peruse the samples. I love having woven samples to examine! My mind hasn't quite figured out the jump from 2D drafts to 3D fabrics, and samples really help.

The inspiration for this piece was from "Pinellas Weaving News, January 18, 1969, page 3. The source cited is a "Weavers Seminar at Amherst, Mass., 1967 by Grace C. Reed, weaving teacher and co-designer of Macomber Looms" and the yardage was woven by Eva L.E. Quinn. The original piece won Best in Show at the Pinellas County Fair in 1968.

I ran into a few tension issues with this piece--the warp faced band in the center builds a ridge on the front beam, which lowers the tension on the other areas of the fabric. Next time I'll have to put some sort of filler on the front beam to help even out the tension.