Family Stuff and LOOM Stuff

Gonna put a hold for another blog post on Motorhome Modifications.  I got lots of family fun stuff to post about and a NEW TO ME LOOM!

Saturday was a very fun day for our families.  Our two younger grandsons both turned 5 just eight days apart.  Our son and daughter have started celebrating their birthdays together, so all the family can gather at one place.  This year they decided to rent rooms at the Green Bay Ramada Inn with indoor water park!  What a fun place!

Here is granddaughter Whitney 

and the littlest granddaughter Claire

They arranged for a pizza meal in the almost empty diningroom/bar area.  We kinda took it over with the 19-20 adults and 9-10 kids.

The five older grandkids were on their best behavior.. eating their pizza and giggling and laughing.  It was so good to have ALL my kids and grandkids together at one place for such wonderful birthday fun...  Plus they all wanted to go back to the pool area after the meal for more water fun.

Daughterinlaw Heather brought the cake for the boys to enjoy

and everyone helped to sing their song! 

Presents were opened and both boys got handmade quilts from Steve and I.  (along with a DVD about trucks/cars/diggers/trains/etc and some popcorn for a movie night)

The quilts were made with a Builder Bob theme, but as they get older, they can flip them over. Grandpa Steve found these great panels of fabric with the world printed on them.  So they can learn about geography as they grow up. I added borders and bindings and did all the free motion quilting stitches with variegated thread.

I was so pleased to see them both sitting on their quilts at the party, posing for a pic for this silly old "Grandma With A Camera"!

CLAYTON

MASON

Here was how I worked on the quilts....  Once I added the colorful borders all around, I decided they needed to be taller for a twin bed. So I added a hunter green panel across the top and did a fancy star stitch for the letters of their name that I free hand drew on the fabric. I used a really nice Clover Marking Pen that my friend Connie gave me. Once you are done sewing, you iron over the area and all of the marks disappear!

I added these little tags on the back of each quilt, that I ran off my printer with some iron on label fabric by June Tailor to make the labels. It says once you iron over it, the ink should be permanent. I hope so! I stitched around the edges to be sure it doesn't peel off in the laundry. I hope.

My next quilt I am working on is this pretty one I saw on the cover of Fons and Porter magazine a while back. I just loved the idea and changed the colors a bit.... I didn't use any greens.

I pre-washed all my batik fabrics and I am really glad I did --- because they bled dye all over each wash batch (separate loads in mesh lingerie bags). I washed them all twice to be sure. That would have been terrible to have bled dyes onto the white fabric portions, so I am glad I chose to pre-wash and starch them.

I adapted the pattern a bit by using foundation piecing and leaving my foundation material in the quilt block (as opposed to using paper and ripping it free)  I tried that other way in the instructions and it made it all wrinkly and stretched out the triangles cut on bias.... It was hard to match up all 10 smaller pieces, which were then into four bigger pieces, then four pieces for each section and then those all into a big block. (40 pieces total) so I tried using some water soluble clear sheets of interfacing but those were hard to work with and were really slippery and tore easily while sewing.

I had to come up with another idea......   I found that by using my own foundations of lightweight non-fusible interfacing that I traced the patterns onto, now I could sew good crisp lines and get good even shapes... much nicer!

Leaving the foundation IN the block will solve my problem. I think I am going to really like this quilt!

I did a big king sized quilt using foundation pieces and leaving in the interfacing for my daughter Heather and soninlaw Jesse and it worked out very well too.

It's so nice to sit back and sew on a drizzly rainy morning, 

matching up pretty bright spring colors.  

It's a great way to bring the springtime feeling into the house,

even if the flowers are not yet blooming outside.

This morning I saw a facebook post about a whole slew of rummage sales going on just north of our little town.  It was well planned out with furnished maps and detailed listings handed out at all of the 15 sales.... so once you stopped at one sale, you would get the information of all the rest of the sales in the area!   

I found a few great bargains!  These four chaise lounge chairs were the first to go in the car!  I managed two in the trunk and tried for the other two in the back seat. Didn't work too well, so I put them crossways, with the help of a kind gentleman attending the sale.  I carry a can of bungee cords in my trunk for just such a find!

With our new plans for the backyard this summer, these chairs will work great!  They are made by an American company called Grosfillex, who makes them for cruise ships and hotel swimming pools etc.  I like how they stack up and fold down into one neat pile for storage in the garage.

I looked them up online and found out new they ran in the $90-120 range, depending on how many you ordered... that is EACH!   I got the whole stack of four of them for a mere $15.  SCORE! We tried out two of them... once we get onto our next backyard plan, these will be really nice for sitting in out there.

The sad part of the day is that there were two accidents, both on the same highway about 10 miles apart....  so traffic was being rerouted.  I have since later heard a mother died, but her three children are all okay.  So sad.

I almost didn't go to the last sale on the map, but sure glad I did.  I walked in and saw this loom!!!
 (and another one that was missing a bunch of parts, only about half there)   I examined it and I said SOLD!  

 It is a Union Special, made in Boonville NY about 70-80 years ago....

I asked if I could pay now and come back later with Steve to tear it apart.  Remember, my car was full to the brim!  The people said yes.....

So after 3 pm today when Steve was done driving his Old Fart Party Bus, we headed on back with a sack of  tools ...  We are very familiar with this brand of loom, having owned three of them in the past.  In no time flat we had it apart and loaded up in the back of the Tracker.

It will need new heddles, new reed and lots of loving care to the wood. Steve will grind the rust off the metal parts and give them a new coat of Rustoleum paint.  It will be sparkling shiny and ready to weave again soon. I love it that he helps me restore these looms when I find them.  Some come, some go.  But no matter what, they are taken care of, put back in working order and loved again.

I am anxious to cut free that partially woven rug on the front beam. I will finish off the edges with binding and make it into a complete rug.  Honoring the person long ago who never got to finish up that last rug.  I asked the lady selling it if she knew anything about it. Just that she bought it at a farm auction on Lax Chapel Road, about 10 miles south of us.  So it is a local loom, but that is all she knows about it. Included were two old worn shuttles with some vintage rag on one and some rotting cotton warp thread on the other... for weaving the hems. I will wind  up the rag into a ball to stay with the loom and the rug. 

I am not sure if I will keep the loom after restoration, or pass it on to a new weaver down the road.   For now, it is a project in the making for the Pfundtner Loom Restoration Crew!