Quite far from the cabin, alongside my garden. It did burn some of last years garden trash!

Streetside, by my garden.

Pastel birds, buns and rugs await the storm.

Lots of time spent in the workshop this past Saturday and Sunday, outwitting the onslaught of snow that never came. Among my rather large wool blanket collection are some spring-like pastels that kept calling to me. A while back I completed a baby quilt for our May arrival, and wanting to include big sister in the giving, decided to repeat the bird theme for her as well. Iris LOVES birds, in her voice. I also wanted some kind of a 'natural' nest to settle them in, and after much thought and several attempts with twigs, branches and weeds, I came up with the idea of braiding baskets with strips from the pastel blankets. They turned out better than I had hoped.

Another double-faced rug and I am already anxious to start the third. Though the colors don't look quite so clear here, the one side is burgandy, black and a light, mint green, and the other is burgandy, black and baby blue. I rather like it.

A weekend of waiting and waiting for the snow storm, led to lots of time in the kitchen and the workshop. There's nothing quite like the smell of something baking, in this case Carmel Rolls, filling the kitchen, to take one's mind off the impending weather.

Off the loom!

Iris and I spent part of our morning, tying off the rug and twisting the fringe. Although she is not truly adept at this, she knows the moves, and even asks"Nonna, is this how many you take?" She is good at combing the threads and getting them to lay straight.

I am happy with the finished rug, especially for my first venture in this type of rug. When I was completing it on the loom, I thought I regretted warping for several rugs, and even contemplated pulling all the threads. Now, I am anxious to move on to the next rug with a bit more planning on color. Hopefully, tomorrow.

On to Easter cookie making after the rug was deemed, "It's be-u-ti-ful, Nonna." Iris loved cutting out the 'peeps' almost as much as munching the one she actually ate. As she sprinkled the colored bits on the cookies, she asked if she could cut out cookies with the sprinkler top, I said yes. She cut out a few and said, " look, earlobe cookies!" Is there a season for them?

A New Weaving Adventure

I have been weaving for a very long time, but still can't shake the feeling of being a novice! I have mostly, except for tapestry weaving, woven on an old Union #36 loom, which was an old loom when I purcahsed it in the early 70's. It has done well by me, and I do love the age and history of it's worn wood. I recently had made a new maple sectional warp beam, which is itself quite beautiful. I have been using this new beam for the last few rugs, which have been in my traditional style, design mostly accomplished by use of varied colored wool blanket ends. Rich and lovely in most cases. However, I recently read in a newsletter how I could warp my Union loom to weave a double-faced rug. I was fasinated by this idea, and as much as I hate warping took on this added 'burden' and warped for this type rug. As you can see in the above picture, there are threads that are not threaded into heddles, and thus form the division between upper shed and lower shed, or more exactly, front and back of rug. The weaving was not as easy as I had hoped, basically going through the bottom shed proved extremely trying. I have, however, completed the first of these rugs, and will tie it and twist fringe (along with Iris who 'ties and twists' along with me) today. No judgement yet on how much I like the rug.