A WEEK OF WEAVING

 

I've had a fun time this last week or so on my weaving frame.  I wanted to try and make some cuff bracelets after seeing some on the internet.

 

I had a rummage through my stash of yarns from Michel and found some pretty pink shades in different textures like chenille and sparkly acrylic.  I set up the loom with a plain pink cotton for the warp as it was the strongest and then started to weave across alternating the different colours.  I ended up with a piece measuring about 7 x 20 centimetres.  At each end of the weaving you can see some red yarn woven across in 3 lines, this is to prevent the weaving coming undone when I take it off the loom and is removed when I have stabilised the weaving with some fine iron on interfacing.

 

I searched my collection of fabric scraps and came up with some co-ordinating batik but I had to go shopping for the fine elastic and the pearl buttons. I faced out the weaving with the lining, adding the loops at one end and making the opening in the middle to make it easier to turn through which only needed hemming when I finished.

 

 

 

After stitching on the buttons I had a pretty cuff bracelet, perfectly co-ordinated with my pink jumper.

 

This inspired me to try another, blue one which goes well with jeans and white tops.

 

The buttons for this one came from an old necklace my sister gave me years ago (thank you Juliet!)

 

 

Then I thought I would try one woven in the other direction, with the warp on the short side instead of the long one.  In fact I was using up the warp after weaving the front of my new bag.  It's quite wasteful if I throw away the rest of the warp from the 50 cms frame when I've only woven 20 cms for the project.  Above you can see the finished weaving with the iron on interfacing to  keep the yarns in place.

 

 

I took a few wooden beads from an old bracelet to decorate this one.

 

The buttons are beads from another old necklace which I coloured to match with nail varnish.  And I'm sure you recognise the lining, it's a scrap from my new holiday blouse made from a sarong.

 

Next time I'll show you the new bag I made so watch this space and thank you for visiting today.

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WINTER HOLIDAYS 2019

 

We had 2 lovely sunny weeks at Los Cristianos on Tenerife in a comfortable modern hotel overlooking the harbour and bay.

I took some embroidery supplies with me so that I could sit and stitch in the sun.

I was inspired by the cacti used to decorate the public areas of the hotel combined a couple of sketches for this one.

 

 

There was a nice pool area with plenty of interesting trees and plants to draw.

 

I took a handful of inktense crayons and some water soluble Triplus pens so I was very happy sitting for the afternoon drawing what was in front of me.

 

These pots of cacti were on the roof of the hotel in a chill out zone where we could relax on big sofas and sun loungers with extra cushions.

 

The cactus bar had it's 6 foot high symbol in a huge pot.

 

While we were there I went to the market to say hello to Sharon and buy a few more of her beautiful sarongs. She was delighted to see what I had made in previous years and I've promised to email her a picture of my next creations.

 

My final stitch pic is an interpretation of the view from our balcony at sunset.  I re-cycled lots of bits like the ribbon from a basket of goodies from the hotel, a cord from a sun-hat and the sun is cut from a perfume sample card.

We're already thinking  of our next trip, a cruise to the cities of the Baltic in May and I'm planning to make a sketchbook to record the journey.