Quilt Til' You Wilt shop in Hudson, FL

We are patiently parked in a lot at Suncoast Designers in Hudson, FL.  They have removed our blown thermopane window and are going to take it apart, clean the glass, and reseal it up and put it back in!

I will do a complete blog post on that tomorrow with pics of our tour. I am waiting for the final pics to post of the finished project.

I promise, my dear RV readers, it will be an interesting post!


We woke up at 6 am to tornado watch alerts... but all storms soon passed around us to the south or the north, and we were just fine. But just in case, we packed an Evac Emergency Bag with laptop, meds, purse, wallet and phone.  Both dogs were on harnesses and leashes, and we had on shoes were ready to grab the dogs and bag and run to the big building if anything was happening nearby.

Paula and Mel, fellow Safari-ites who have been at my mom's with us these last two weeks were with us too.  They are having a window fixed on their rig as well.

While we are waiting for our windows to get done, Paula found two quilt shops in the area!  Imagine that!  One was closed and moved to another location further away.  But the other sounded interesting.....  We googled for directions, and found this delightful place tucked back in the Florida woods.  At first we were not sure if we were in the right place, till we saw all the cars parked by this adorable little building set back in the trees.

http://www.quilttilyouwilt.net/

Quilt Til' You Wilt FaceBook page

We came into a wonderful shop full of fibers, fabric, tools and lots of friendly chatter.  That is a sign of a Good Quilt Shop!  Sometimes you walk in and people stop and stare, but this one was busy!


This is the first shop I have been in that has it's bolts of fabric displayed sideways on hinged racks. You can page through the bolts like pages of books hanging on a wall!  What a great layout display idea!  All the prices and manufacturers were readily available on the ends of the bolts, and you could still see the the fabrics  (AND TOUCH THEM) as you paged your way through.....

All around the store were interesting displays of finished projects

inspiring with a lot of ideas! 

(I know my mom would want to see the bears!)

Towards the back of the shop was a class room.  Instead of a sign that said "keep out"  this one had a sign that encouraged you to "peek inside"!!!  How refreshing!   We saw a number of ladies working in a class, with a lot of wonderful items on display too.

I saw some beautiful looking new machines...  these came out in honor of Singer's sewing machine anniversary.  How cool is that?  Everything Old Is New Again?   I told the ladies that I do most of my piecing on a 102 year old Singer treadle machine.

Since we are RVer's, 

this display of little blocks was pretty cute.... 

In another room, off to one side, were a couple long arm quilting machines.  This gal was from out of state, but was here "renting" time on this machine to do up her quilts.  This is where the pieced quilt top is sandwiched with the batting and bottom fabric.  Then she can make the patterned quilting stitches all over the smooth quilt layers and have a finished quilt (all she has to do now is sew on a binding around the edges) .

She worked so fast (even with me interrupting her) that she was already loading up another quilt to get worked on before we were ready to leave!  She sure is doing a great job.

I haven't had the need yet for a machine so big, but never say never! 

The owner of the shop, Pat, created this wonderful lighting bar over the other machine.  Great ingenuity!  She used shelving brackets, L brackets and track lighting.  Great idea!

Another cute idea was this bobbin holder! 

We looked at a lot of fun stuff.  I was on the hunt for a certain book, but she didn't have it. I guess I will have to order it from Amazon.  I was hoping to find it in a little shop, so I could have fond memories of buying it from a special place.  Oh well, instead I bought some fabric that "spoke" to me when I first came in!   Quilters know that feeling.....     

The top one is the speaking fabric! 

Paula helped me pick out two other coordinating fabrics to go with it.... 

I found some little sections of fabrics called "fat quarters" for my mom. She likes to clip out little patterns and figures of fabric and glue them to cardstock. She makes wonderful note cards and greeting cards, and sells them at craft shows.  Now when she reads this, she will see the ones I picked up for her. 

 Paula had some fabrics cut up too, 

and we both left the shop with big smiles on our faces. 

It was a great outing,

and next time we are in the area, 

we will be SURE to stop back! 

Sunny Sunday and some Rug Weaving Stuff

Ohhh what a lovely way to start a Sunday!  The sunshine is pouring in, and we might hit FIFTY DEGREES today!  I baked up some berry muffins this morning....   the house smells so good.

After church today we are going to meet up with Steve's dad and brother for a late breakfast/brunch, so these will hold us over until then.

Yesterday morning we were out on the front porch with our coffee... this morning it has to warm up a bit more before we head out there.  The outside temps are 25 and the porch is only up to 45 right now.  In another hour or so of sunshine, it will get much nicer.  The porch faces the east, so the sun will be doing it's solar thing and making it very comfortable after 9 am or so.

I just finished weaving that ten foot long runner rug for the porch, along with a six foot long one for between the outer porch door and the inner entry door.  I wove them from multiple strips of blue and white rags.  The random pattern is achieved by just winding all three strips of fabric onto the stick shuttle together and letting the colors lay where they come off as I weave.

Once the rugs are woven, I cut them off the loom.  Sometimes I have four, five, or six rugs in a roll on the loom to cut off at once time.  Then they need to be hemmed.  I fold them over twice, so the hems are three layers thick.  I sew them on my 75 year old Singer sewing machine that I got from my Grandma Groop before she passed away.  It's the only machine I have that is strong enough to handle the thick heavy hems of a rug. 

Speaking of rugs, earlier this week I stocked up on fabric for weaving more rugs.  A local organic clothing company in Oshkosh was having a warehouse sale of depleting some of their fabric stock.  I contacted my weaving friends to let them know of the sale and met with Jim and Norma of Pa and Ma Rugs in Beloit, WI to meet me there.  

Wowzer!!! We could check out rolls and rolls and rolls of fabrics for sale!   There was sooo much to choose from----  and I found myself dazed by the many types and textures.  The only thing keeping me in balance was the limited check book after our vacation and car repairs.  ACK!  

Here is Norma in the middle of it all, choosing roll after roll to be loaded into their truck.  (they weave hundreds of rugs a year so need fabric in large quantities) 

After we chose our rolls, we went up to the front of the factory to pay...  

this interesting fabric patriotic display is made of legs of denim jeans!  

(now THAT is Made in America at it's finest!) 

Jim and Norma got about a dozen rolls loaded into their truck to haul back to Beloit. 

Knowing Norma, these will be cut up into strips in no time, and Jim will have loaded shuttles setting there by his looms, ready to get weaving.  She does the prep work and he weaves.... 

My stash enhancement was not quite as impressive, but I did splurge on four huge rolls of 60" wide denim and a roll of burgundy wool, along with a smaller bolt of navy blue twill of about 5 yards. My expense was only $80.00   The sales staff estimated each roll to be about 10 yards (30 feet)   When I got them home and unrolled the smallest one, it was over 15 yards... so I would guesstimate the larger rolls at 20 yards?

Yesterday was such a nice day, I started prewashing the denim.  (to avoid shrinkage and remove the sizing and crispness in new fabric to soften for better weaving)   I unwound 2 of the bolts of denim and cut the portions in half, about 25 feet in each portion.  I stuffed them one portion at a time (that is 125 sq ft or so)  into my front loading washing machine in the basement.  Load by load, I did up only 2 rolls of the denim fabric and hung them out on my clotheslines to dry.  This is about 100 feet of 5 feet wide denim fabric on four wash lines out back!  Only half way done. Whew, what a job, but well worth it. 

Just imagine how many pairs of jeans I would have to cut apart 

to get THIS much denim to weave with? 

I cut them apart into strips with this cordless handheld cutting tool from Rockwell called a Zip Snip...  available for about $30 from Walmart, Amazon or Menards around here in the Midwest. 

We had so much sunshine yesterday that most of the snow is melted and we have grassy portions showing through.  Still some lumps of dirty crusty snow are sitting here and there, and big snowbanks leftover where it was plowed or shoveled.  But it gives us HOPE of Springtime....  we could easily get more snow, as it's still March.  So we are not holding our breath. 

The motorhome is patiently waiting for us to go camping again.  It is setting out among the melting snowbanks. We do have a few camping trips planned, plus a family camping weekend at High Cliff in the group sites.  In addition to that, we will be camphosts again for the campground at High Cliff State Park for the entire month of August. Come join us!  All reservations need to made through http://www.reserveamerica.com/ 

Well, my coffee cup is empty, and time to get a move on here. I am thinking two doggies still have Florida sand in their dusty fur coats and could each use a nice bath.  Now that it's warmer out, they can dry off all day while it's sunny and not be so damp when let outdoors to do their thing later. I am sure they will find a sunny spot in the house to stretch out and bask in the springtime sunshine.  

And special congrats to the Wisconsin Badgers for making it to the Final Four in the March Madness... Wisconsin is very proud and happy to have made it this far....  Way To Go! 

What is going on in my Loom Room today

Ahhh it's still a rainy icky cold day here in Wisconsin...  no camping this weekend yet, and things are just blah outside.   So I thought I would treat my weaving friends who my read my blog with some photos.   And for the rest of you RV friends and family, you can see a bit of what I do in my Loom Room!


I am taking a little break this afternoon from all four looms to snap a few pics and jot this blog down... Today I have been cutting fabric up in strips.. using my Olfa mat and rotary cutter.  I fold the flat fabric up into multiple thicknesses and cut the width of strips I need for various rag rugs.

Steve and the kids got me the supersized Olfa mat many years ago..... I remember it well.   It was Mother's Day weekend when we happened to be camping, and on Friday and Saturday, he had to re-hide it from place to place in the camper, as I kept "almost" finding it!

I later found out:

First he had it behind the clothes in the closet... but then I was going in to get jackets to sit out around the campfire... oh oh he had to rush in and move it before I went in and saw it!

Then I was going in to make up the beds for the kids, and little did I know, he had hidden it in the compartment under the booth seat, underneath the sleeping bags!   So he had to rush to hide it again!

The third move was under the mattress of our bed...safe...  but then on Mother's Day morning, while the kids were piling on the bed and giving me breakfast, flowers, cards and hugs, we ALL had to get off the bed so he could slide out my hidden present!   Ahhhh what fun and what memories!

This is what I used the green fabric strips on... as border accents for this cotton rug woven in 3 end block weave... being woven on my 45" Newcomb Studio Rug Loom

Next rug up on the list is featuring recycling at it's finest!  This rug is made from factory waste leftovers from making upholstery fabric, and is sold in large bales to weavers. I mix up a blend of various colors that harmonize, and weave up some of the most delightful rugs!  The ends will have fringes with coordinating colors, twisted into braids that add to the style of the rug.

My friend, Chris, calls this stuff Elephant Chenille! 

It is really, really messy to work with, but it makes wonderful rugs! A mask is needed with working with this stuff as it makes a really linty fibery mess as you load the shuttles and beat the rugs.  This rug is being woven on my old Union Loom, that has been converted to a 4 harness loom.

When I get tired of beating the fibery stuff and wearing the mask, I quit on that loom and jump over to the next one (benefit of having more than one loom-- umm I have 6 or 7 or 8  I think now?) 

This rug is in soft pretty pastels in a log cabin pattern on the smaller 2 harness Union Loom.  I have woven about 5 or 6 of these rugs already and have enough of this fabric for one or two more. The rag color is the same, just the warp threads over each section make it appear to change colors.  Then I switch the order in which it is woven, and those blocks appear to change too. All an illusion of careful threading and tricky weaving!

This last rug I am weaving on my 36" Newcomb Studio Loom... This one is made to brighten my spirits on a gloomy icky day like today.  It's all bright colors of warp, ever color under the sun!  

And very springtime appropriate colors for the rags, in random stripes.  What fun! 

 Now that I gave you the tour of my four rug looms and what I have been working on, 

I am thinking it's time for an afternoon nap.  

YAWWWNNNNNN

Shameless plug---  many of my rugs can be found for sale on my website store:  http://kareninthewoods.etsy.com/

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