I can’t think of a better way to spend a day waiting for spring to arrive than a gathering of weavers at Judith’s home filled with sunlight and art everywhere you look. Apparently she is not the only talented artist in her family. We all greatly admire the dedication and beauty of Judith’s art journals. She shared one from her trip to Ireland and showed us a couple of lovely hand stitched journals. So far I have gone so far as to find my pens and get out a sketchbook but that first blank page has me stuck. All things in their own time.
My weaving has been at a standstill, so the day before our gathering I was determined to finish a wool tote I was sewing so that I would at least have something for show and tell. Sewing and I have a tumultuous relationship. Trauma lingering from making one too many Frostline Kits in the days when I was too poor to buy good camping equipment and resorted to sewing a tent, sleeping bag, down vests, and god knows what else. For me it’s not sewing unless I spend half the time ripping seams out. Things were going pretty well until my machine broke about six inches short of the final stitching before I could turn the lining inside out and be done. I went downstairs and dug my grandmothers Singer, unused for about 20 years, out of the storage room and it actually made some noise when I turned it on. That machine was just about froze solid, but stitch by stitch I managed to sew those last 6 inches. It was about midnight by the time I got the handles and label sewn on. I didn’t even care that much the next morning, when I realized as I was throwing it over my shoulder, that I had sewed the handles on wrong. Kind of felt like I have my bad sewing mojo back and darn if I didn’t have something to show for it.
Lots of handwovens to admire throughout Judiths’ home
Some of Judith’s art journals
judith’s knitting
Knitting works in progress except for Anna’s finished socks.
Kathy’s doubleweave
Crackle weave on Judith’s loom and sculptures by Amy and her husband Kelsey
Denise’s swatches
A sunny spot for her Glimakra Julia
ta da, my first sewing project in probably 20 years
Thank you Angie first of all for coming to my house on that snowy March morning and then for taking the time to use Photography and prose to create a record for all of us of memorable moments we’ve had together. This advice from Louisa May Alcott describes what you have been giving us for years now, and you even may want to fill up that first page of your journal with this quote:
Preserve your memories, keep them well
What you forget, you can never retell.
LMA
knowing my memory that is one of the best reasons I can think of to just start it. Thanks for all of he inspiration you inspire in me.