Tapestry endeavors...

I just finished off a little thank-you gift for a friend and thought I'd take a quick picture for posting.

I wove four separate 4 x 31/2" symbols and framed them against some brown velveteen.

It's been quite the adventure taking care of the baby and keeping creative juices flowing, but so far so good!

Hearts off the charts!

~JQ

Not entirely un-productive!

Hello!

Just want to pop in while baby is napping and drop off a few pictures of my latest projects. I HAVE been up to something more than catering to William's every whim, but it's sporadic at best.

Anyhoo here are the accomplishments:

Mum/Bebe hats made with 100% hand spun (by yours truly) alpaca yarn that I dyed with cherry kool-aid and then knit up on circular needles. I knit 8 rows, then purled 8 rows etc to get the Bebe hat to be slouchy. The Mum hat is done similarly, except the purl sections are actually k/p alternations instead of all purl (so the hat isn't slouchy--just textured ribs). I cast off straight across the tops and knit little horns on the mum hat and put little tassels on the Bebe hat.


These potholders are done with crochet cotton. I copied them from a set of potholders that Grandma bought at Value Village. I wrote the patterns down. :) Those are actually ruffles on those three to the right. I apologize for the blurry photos guys. We still don't have the extra cash for my fancy camera.


I have these Kerr glasses that I recently discovered can hold my hot bevvy's, but being as there are no handles, I decided to knit these little ribbed sleeves for them. I have six glasses, so I will do the primary and secondary colours.


And finally, these are shots of my current tapestry in progress. It is the second installment in my "True Colours" series. That slime green mohair you see is destined to replace the glowing whites of my eyes, in what I hope will be a very toxic final product.


Detail...or as close to one as my awful camera will let me get.



Hearts off the charts,
JQ

Birth Announcement...

Welcome baby William Jakob Keller, born June 10 at 6:25 pm, weighing 8 lbs 12oz and measuring 21.5" long. He has his daddy's feet and his mommy's temper!






Hearts off the charts!
JQ

Self Portrait

This 6"x 6" tapestry is a self portrait I wove for a member's show at Chapel Gallery in Battleford. It was a super fun project and I actually have three or four more of them planned, the same size, but with different bright colors, and textures. I am calling them my "True Colours".

On a separate and exciting note I just found out today that a lady from Ontario purchased my "Break Free" tapestry from the Flatland Fibre "off The Wall" show. It was on display for the month of May! "Break Free" is the first tapestry pictured in the entry below. It sold for 750$ Canadian. WEEEE! That is the first tapestry I have sold through a gallery show!

Alright this entry is short and sweet as I am busy madly cleaning my house, doing laundry, making supper, and waiting to feel my first contraction!

Hearts off the charts!
JQ

Tapestry endeavors...

Hello all!

It's finally time for a fibre post!

These two tapestries were woven on crude picture frame looms. I took the backs and glass out and made notches at 4 ends per inch for Break Free, and 8 ends per inch for Happy Bubbles, along the tops and bottoms of each frame. I then wound the warp around and slid each thread through a consecutive notch for a continuous warp. Then I did a few rows of twining before beginning each tapestry.

This is 'Break Free', a concept I developed for the Flatland Fibre "Off the Wall" show. It was accepted and is currently on display until the end of June at the Saskatchewan Craft Council gallery on Broadway in Saskatoon. This photograph is taken head on. the frame is rectangular, but the tapestry was woven as a trapezoid to accentuate the sense of perspective. The post at the far right was woven into the tapestry. The one in the middle was woven without closing the slits that naturally form along each vertical edge with the consistant color change, however instead of stopping the yellow background, and turning around at each edge of the post, I brought the thread behind the post and continued weaving all the way across the background, which pushed the post outwards from the tapestry just slightly. You can see the shadow that falls to the left of the post here.



The post to the left was woven as a completely separate, rectangular tapestry on the back of the frame, using up some of the excess warp behind the main tapestry. I wove it with linen, silk wool, and moss-colored sythetic fibre, with bound threads snaking up and down to simulate cracks/texture. Then when I cut the tapestries off the frame I created the post by stitching the sides together at the back around a piece of cardboard tubing. I then created a top and bottom for the post by gluing coils of thick jute cord onto ovals of carboard. The frame is a rectangle of 1/2 inch board stretched with burlap. I crafted picture wire into barbed wire by stripping it down by half in each section between the posts, and then wrapping little pices of wire around with tweezers to make the barbs. It's difficult to see in photos, but you can really see it on the actual tapestry. Here's a detail of the three-dimentional post and wire:

This tapestry is called 'Happy Bubbles'. It was my submission to the touring exhibition "Playing With Dimensions", but was not accepted. I'll try again next year!

I wanted to experiment with weaving shaped borders, and designed a cartoon that was mostly rectangular, but had circles escaping the lower border of the main tapestry (the lighter blue, yellow, and pink ones at the bottom left). Then I wove five separate 'bubbles' (top to bottom: bright green with stripes, turquoise, orange with center stripe, red checks, and royal blue), woven as circles and then mounted on circles of board, and suspended on posts at varying heights above the main tapestry. Below are a couple details:

I squeaked my signature in there!


Okay well those are the two most recent projects! Thanks for your patience! I am so releieved to finally have High speed internet! Hopefully I will have less trouble making regular posts now.

Hearts off the charts!
JQ

Pictureless update...

Hello everyone,

I apologize for the extended silence, but this dial up has me very frustrated. The good news is that I am currently in the process of relocating to Saskatoon, which will mean high speed internet goodness. I will make a picture post as soon as we get all hooked up.

This means that I will soon be able to more regularly visit my fellow blogger's pages as well! :)

Lots has happened since I last posted. We lost Murphy Brown to the elements, the poor thing. We thought he looked pretty fluffy and healthy bounding around in the fields all summer with his mum, but alas when we found he had succumbed during the first really bad cold snap, we discovered he was a fair bit underweight. He just didn't get a fair enough start on Honey's milk. RIP Murphy Brown. I gave him a haircut, and am planning to do something very special with his 4 1/2 inch fibre. I'd like to spin up a lace weight and knit a little scarf.

Also we lost Chantal, one of the older females that had been given to us. we don't really know what was the cause but apparently they don't often show when they are ill, and once they go down it is often too late for any intervention. Anyways, I hope she didn't suffer too much in the night before she passed. RIP Chantal.

I am currently 7 1/2 months preggers, and expecting a wee addition to the family as of June sixth. We don't know if it is a boy or a girl. It's all about the surprise! At any rate the baby is probably already used to the rythms of weaving, as I have completed two tapestry projects during the latter half of the pregnancy, and I found that babe likes to squirm around a lot when I have that frame loom nestled in my lap and am beating gently at the threads with my finger nails (which are hard as rocks and long enough to be very useful for beating threads!)

The two tapestries were for two separate shows through the Saskatchewan Craft Council Gallery. The first one was accepted in the Flatland Fibre "Off the Wall" show, and will be on display at the SCC Gallery in May. The second one was submitted for the annual "Dimensions" touring exhibition, which is a pretty big show, and I knew it would be a hard one to get into. Also, because I was in the middle of a move and frantically trying to kill all birds with one little stone while 7 months pregnant, I just didn't give the framing as much attention as it deserved, and in the end, being pressed for time, submitted a very pretty tapestry with a very sub-par frame. I was not accepted. My inner perfectionist is stomping her feet and spitting "I told you so's". But the tapestry is well done, and I was pleased with it otherwise, so back to the drawing board for framing, and I hope to make it better and submit it for the Chapel Gallery member's show of current works in August, so it's not a loss by a long shot. Besides, I learned a lot. :)

My first high speed picture post will be showing off these two latest creations. I promise!

I'm very excited about my move to Saskatoon. I have already joined the Weaver's guild there!

More from HeartsOnFibre soon!
Cheers!
JQ