Tag: Ginger Jars

I’m making Rabbit Stew…

My college roommate reached out to me a couple weeks ago, her daughter was getting married, bought a used wedding dress, good for her, but it needed serious alterations. I don’t usually do alterations anymore, except for the Shakespeare Theatre where I volunteer, but I adore this woman, and if I could be of help, that’s what friends do. After spending a day together reworking a bodice that was clearly the wrong cup size, she called and asked if we could consult on how to hem a 7-tiered chiffon skirt. I said, “Sure, I’m just cutting up a squirrel”. Her emoji response was hilarious, I think she took me seriously…

No, I’m not cooking, I actually don’t eat meat, but September 1 is “make everything that isn’t nailed down into something I can sell at the guild sale” month. (The actual guild sale is in November.) And stuffed animals are high on the priority list. Here is a rabbit from earlier in the year, one of the last ones, purchased by a friend for an adorable newest family member…

I have made squirrels, rabbits, bears, and now the newest critter is a dachschund.

But let me back up, because none of this would have been possible if my daughter and I hadn’t done the back breaking work of moving most of the sewing studio up into the garage weaving studio.

My daughter, as I’ve mentioned before, works nights, I mean real nights, and if it is daylight, she is asleep. Even on her days off, she sticks to that schedule. So coordinating with her for this monumental move was really tough. Nevertheless, she first dismantled the cutting table, into smaller components, and we managed to get it up the basement steps to the garage and reassembled.

Then I carefully started bringing up the contents of the undershelving, that had been dumped on the basement floor. Of course Mulder the cat jumped in the first available cubbyhole claiming it for himself. See if you can find him hiding…

I had to wait another week or so, and my beloved daughter dismantled the huge workbench that was in the garage, and we carried it piece by piece down to the basement where she will eventually set it up as a workbench for some of her hobbies. Another week went by and we disassembled the sewing machine table and brought it up to the garage studio.

I still needed the most important component, the iron. My iron is a gravity fed iron, with a hanging gallon bottle of water. Because the split heating/AC system was in the block wall above where the sewing table was, we couldn’t realistically hang the water bottle from the ceiling. My daughter, who works as a vet tech in a critical care vet hospital suggested, duh, an IV pole. So I ordered one, and I assembled it when it arrived a few days later. I ultimately had to anchor it to the ironing board, because I reached too far with the iron, and the whole pole with a fresh full gallon of water went over causing quite the mess.

And I bought a thread rack so I can see at a glance what I actually own…

All of the fabric and all of the books need to come up from the basement still, but I have a plan. The biggest issue is I need to move out a couple more looms. So if you are within driving distance of north Jersey, and want a 4-shaft loom, we are selling a 25″ Tools of the Trade floor loom, for $500 or best offer, and a 32″ Tools of the Trade floor loom (with a second back and warp beam) for $600 or best offer. In addition, my daughter is selling her 12-shaft Leclerc Dorothy table loom with add-on shuttle race for $800 or best offer.

Meanwhile, I moved all of the reeds over to the window…

Which gave me some additional wall space for an Ikea Kallax unit for all of the yarns still in baskets and bins on the floor.

So back to making animals…

I grab a bag of scrap, and I see what I can make from it. So far I’ve cut out a few rabbits and bears, some squirrels and a couple of dachshunds. I’m even cutting up old handwoven clothing from the 80’s that was returned to me by owners that either died, or couldn’t fit in it anymore, or weren’t wearing it, or whatever.

I’m cutting out Ginger Jars…

And I save my sushi trays, from all my supermarket sushi lunches, and they make great trays to hold all the ornaments, ready to sew together. I make little kits in each tray, with the handwoven fabric fused to a knit interfacing, and include Ultrasuede trims, hanging cords, buttons or beads where necessary, and the embroidery floss.

Last year, I sat for three days in front of the computer listening to seminars during the remote Weaving History Conference at the Thousand Island Art Center. It is a fabulous conference, and as I listened to all the seminars, I just grabbed a sushi tray and put together an ornament. I plan to do the same this year. My goal is to get kits for everything assembled, and then all of October, sew like the wind.

My cat is just loving the new space as much as I am. The light is incredible. And I can see out windows, while I spend hours at the ironing board fusing interfacing to fabrics, and looking at the waterfall in one of the ponds while I sit and sew. I cannot tell you what a joy this is, and how much I just want to be in my studio, all day, every day. The cat jumps up on the table and plops himself down right in the middle of whatever I’m working on.

Mom, please turn out the lights!

I bought wire basket racks for under the ends of the cutting table to hold all my notions from the basement units. Of course Mulder had to claim them as well…

And because my gardens are full of great leaves for botanical printing, I’m using up the pre mordanted silk I have in a bag, and starting to make additional stuff for the guild sale.

At this point, I’ve almost given up trying to maintain control over my gardens. They are out of control, but the amount of pollinator activity is still incredible, and all of the fall plants are starting to bloom, the blue mist flowers and of course the asters.

The milkweed is going to seed. So it is flying everywhere, and my Swamp Rose Mallow keeps blooming…

And if you want to keep the deer away, just plant allium or anything in the onion family and let it take over…

And I admit, I did let some of the pokeweed that has invaded my yard, grow into ginormous bushes, which I’ve had well meaning friends tell me I was crazy to allow, but watching the birds attack the berries, has been infinite fun, as I spend hours at the ironing board.

The 29th of August was the Medieval Fest I’d been preparing for all summer. I played with three groups. I know there were lots of professional photographers and videographers, but I haven’t seen any of the images yet on social media. Meanwhile, my friend’s daughter grabbed this shot, while we were waiting to start playing with the second group, Montclair Early Music.

Music is starting to come in now for all the fall gigs, libraries, festivals, events, early music showcases. If you want to know where I’ll be, New Jersey Early Music has a website that lists everything with details. So my life right now is mostly making stuff for the guild sale, and starting to learn new music for all the fall events.

I just spend my days making music and making stuff, including rabbit stew…

Stay tuned…

I have a plan…

One of the joys of just doing, is the brain has a chance to wander, while weeding, watering, weaving, cooking, cleaning, spinning yarn, knitting, not so much playing music. That requires intense concentration. I do a lot of things that just allow my noisy brain to just wander…

One of the things that has been routinely popping up, as I spend time in my studio, is how much I would love to go back to my original three looms I started with, back in the late 70’s, and bring the sewing room up from the basement, consolidating all of my fiber work into one space again. The more I think about it, the more excited I get. A lot has to happen first, a lot more stuff has to find a home other than here. And my daughter has to be on board, as some of the looms are hers. But I have a plan, and it is formulating into a goal. I’m thinking maybe by the end of the year…

One can only dream…

Meanwhile, there are still more than 25 looms in the studio, of all sizes and types, and many of them still have warps on them. I’ve made a huge dent, my all time high was 64 looms, but when the last big one left in the spring, the 12-shaft 54″ Tools of the Trade, Duchess we called her, to live at Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, a huge amount of space opened up and I saw possibilities.

So I’m on a mission to clear off more looms. The really challenging ones are the remaining Structos, the little looms I used for teaching. I put long warps of fine thread on them, never thinking they’d ever get woven off. Silly me…

Last blog, I was working on clearing a Frankenstructo, made from odd loom parts, of a warp set up to do the Rosepath borders from the Carol Strickler book of 8-shaft patterns. I finished all of the 40+ borders, and the five swatches using the same threading.

This was serious fun. There is a little bit of warp left on the spools, and I’m taking the loom with me tomorrow to the convent to let my new student, a young nun, have a go at learning some new skills, two shuttles, following a draft, 8-shaft, floating selvedges, etc.

Meanwhile, one of my weaving friends is offering a summer boot camp in fiber for adults in Maryland, and needed additional inkle looms. Those I have. My stash is dwindling, but I had a couple to spare once I cleared the warps from them. This one was the sampler I used when I taught complementary warp design. I finished that one off.

And this one, I remember setting up for The Gathering, which was an annual or semi annual event at Sievers Fiber School in Wisconsin, where I believe I was giving the Keynote address that year. It was a weekend long event, and there were demos, and I remember setting up an Inklette loom, which easily fit in my suitcase. I looked at my resume and realized I set this loom up in 2014. 12 years. It was time. The pattern is free form, Ann Dixon in her book of Inkle Loom Patterns calls it Runic. I had to look at my Advanced Inkle Weaving Monograph to remember how to do this technique.

And then there is the Quigley sampler, moved to a floor loom from a Structo, a while back. I chug along, doing a new technique every few days, following my handout generously sent by Diane Click, who taught this as a workshop back in 2015. She graciously allowed me to reproduce the part I used, some 16 samples, and it is available for free from my eStore. I cut the warp off this morning, having finished all the swatches.

There was still a bit of warp left, so I looked at what I had woven carefully, and one of the motifs was exactly the size of the template I use for making my ginger jars. If I weave 6 of these motifs, I’ll have six sides for a ginger jar for the guild sale in November.

This is what the ginger jars look like…

Meanwhile, the gardens are lush and buzzing with activity. This time of year seems to be the peak of everything flowering at once, milkweed, Joe Pye, Purple Coneflower, Black Eyed Susans, Monarda, and a few other very cool plants thrown in because there are SOOOOO MANY BEES!

I sit at my window every morning and have breakfast and have immense gratitude for nature doing its thing, and for my ability to witness just a small part of it.

Lots of butterfly activity too, my lovely monarch just drifts in beautiful movements from flower to flower…

And I had never seen this one before, Google Lens says it is a Great Spangled Fritillary Butterfly. If anyone knows better, put it in the comments.

I grabbed this photo of my Astilbe, which isn’t native, and though I’ve pulled most of it out, there is one patch, and it is gorgeous when it blooms, and it too is covered in bees.

My neighbor, the one who comes out every so often to have a smoke, came to get me the other day, had to show me something. I was out watering in the back yard. So I followed him around to the front, and he pointed to the top of a telephone pole along the street, and there in all its magnificence was a Red-Tailed hawk. We stared at it for probably half an hour. It was gorgeous.

And of course, the produce is starting to come in, in spite of the ridiculous heat, followed by severe storms. What a summer…

Enjoy the photos, it is a jungle out there…

And of course there is lots of music, three of the groups I play with will be performing the end of August at the annual Medieval Fest in Montclair, but more immediately, NJ Early Music will be performing at the close of the Morris County 4-H fair Saturday night.

I feel like I’ve come full circle, when my kids were young, we were heavily involved in 4-H, my kids raised hamsters/guinea pigs, and had a couple of snakes. There is a wonderful photo from 2003 of my late husband holding our Mexican Rosy Boa, (I think its name was Al), at one of the fairs. And one with my son Eric, which made the local paper.

I would set up a fiber demonstration area every year at the fair, demoing weaving, spinning, and lacemaking. Both of my kids grew up demoing weaving at the fair. Everyone entered things, from animals to artwork, to photography, to weaving, and we all won many ribbons. I even had a 4-H prep group that met in my home every week.

So I feel like I’ve come full circle, now I’ll be performing at the closing ceremonies, Saturday night, I haven’t been to the fair in more than 20 years. I’ll have my cello and my bass recorder. And of course in costume.

Stay tuned…

No rest for the weary…

First, let me say that at this point in my life, everything I agree to, everything I participate in, and how much I participate, is completely my choice. I’ve spent my life overbooking myself, because it is what I do, and my twilight “retirement years” are no exception. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m absolutely not the kind of person who sits on the couch watching TV, I got rid of the TV after the flood.

And in my twilight years, especially now that I’m widowed, it is super important to be with a community, or multiple communities, as is the case. I will always have my textile community, my friends, my guild mates, my former students, I love them all and try to gather with them as often as I can. Now there is the early music community, and my beginner cello opportunities, plus the native plant people who are even more generous than the handweaving community, if that’s possible.

And of course there are lots of volunteer opportunities, like at the Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, where I get to hang with the most amazing and talented people. Who knew with 60 years of sewing experience behind me, I could still learn so much.

So yes, my life is crazy busy, and right now way overbooked, but I have a reason to get out of bed each morning and deal with the most critical things, and learn, and celebrate, and create, and I’d say, there is nothing I’d change about my life.

Where to begin…

When I posted last month, I was just beginning to figure out what I wanted to make for my guild sale. My plan, which worked spectacularly well, was to gather all the leftover fabrics, swatches, samples, etc, from the last couple of years, and create stacks of kits so I would know what I had for inventory. The inventory sheets were due ahead of the sale, so the committee could generate bar coded tags. Then I could sew like the wind…

So I cut out tote bags… with just a dusting of scrap left…

And I took a pile of sushi containers and made tons of ornaments…

And I cut out something like 18 zippered project bags, and five ginger jars.

I took advantage of the timing of the Weaving History Conference, sponsored by the Thousand Island Arts Center in Clayton, NY. It was held the end of October, and it was three days of Zoom lectures, which were fantastic. I highly recommend it. I was so very impressed at the passion of the speakers, to devote their lives to the research on some pretty obscure topics, much to the delight of the audience who listened to them. This is the same art center that houses the handweaving museum, which is in the process of building a larger space to house/exhibit their vast textile archives and holdings. They are the ones that if all goes well, sometime in 2026, they will take much of my work from my retrospective exhibit last year at County College of Morris. Anyway, I sat for three days watching Zoom sessions and hand stitching my little heart out… By the end of the conference, all the handwork was done.

I had bunches of ornaments… (many of which sold at the guild sale, the remaining few are now at the Shakespeare Theatre of NJ lobby shop at the Kirby Theatre)

I had 5 ginger jars, all of which sold within the first hour of the guild sale, to the same person. She would have bought more if I’d had them…

I made three stuffed bears, in addition to the two remaining rabbits I had from last year. I sold one of the rabbits and the bears and remaining rabbit are at the Shakespeare Theatre shop. The bears are so freaking cute…

I made a pile of new tote bags, one is missing from the photo as it sold within hours of my making it, to one of my musician friends. I think there are only two left, they are at the Shakespeare Theatre.

I added more greeting cards, many of which sold…

I put two of my woven scarves in the sale, and two of the scarves I wove on the remaining deflected double weave warp from the Natalie Drummond class my guild sponsored in the spring, along with four botanically printed scarves, and all of the scarves sold.

And I created, like I said, something like 18 zippered project bags, in addition to what was left from last year, many of them from Botanically printed silk scraps. This was one of my favorites, with a base of kimono silk from my trip to Japan a couple years ago.

I think there were only about five left when I packed up Sunday night of the sale, they are at the theatre lobby shop.

As you can probably surmise, I did really really well at the sale. It helped that I was there, working the floor the entire three days, and it helped that my friends from the plant communities and the music communities, and my weaving friends from afar all came to buy my work. It is fun to go to a musical gig and see one of my totes carrying someone’s music.

Just before Halloween, I volunteered to work the Shakespeare Theatre costume and prop sale, an annual fund raising event for them. Of course one can’t help but look at what’s on the rack, and I came home with this amazing vest, which was custom made for one of the actors in Romeo and Juliet, but came out the wrong size. It was tiny. I could technically fit in it, but I needed more arm movement for playing the cello, so I thought, “What would we have done in the costume shop?” I ended up creating extensions in black microsuede, which encased loops, and stitched them to the zipper tape, to camouflage the zipper, and give me a couple more inches across the chest. And with a shoelace, I had an instant closure. I was so freaking proud of my solution.

And I took a denim split pant I picked up at the costume sale, remade it and wore it, with the vest, to my performance Sunday at a local Viking Festival, Gormanudur. I played cello and bass recorder. Someone grabbed a photo of me and my friend Ken, who plays all of the recorders, and bass clarinet. In addition to early music, we played some wonderful series and video game music, from Lord of the Rings, Skyrim, Valhalla, etc. And I was delighted to see in the audience one of my weaving guild friends. Her husband is a professional musician. My world overlaps in the best ways!

And though at first glance, my gardens have gone to sleep, my son came and helped me bring in the hoses, put away the mowers, and cut back some of the more prolific Joe Pye Weed and Rudbeckia, to keep the pathways clear for winter walking. It poured rain the day he came, but we persevered and took care of my list anyway, getting completely soaked, but ultimately triumphing and accomplishing my agenda.

I had to pick all the tomatoes left on the vines, we had a hard frost that night. My window sills were full, and I’ve made a lot more sauce and froze it, and oven dried a lot more cherry tomatoes to add to my bags in the freezer.

There are so many berries out there on the bushes, some are native, and some are not, but my gardens are still a work in progress, and I’ll probably remove more invasives next year as the native plants fill in.

And on my walk around the yard this morning, I couldn’t believe how many things were still blooming… I especially loved the rose bud way up in the air against a brilliant blue sky.

And so, now that the guild sale is behind me, and remaining inventory delivered to the Shakespeare Theatre (I let them keep all the money from anything they sell), I can concentrate on all the upcoming performances, and the more than 100 pieces of music I need to learn for them. Yes, it is really hard work, and yes it is probably way too much. But I am learning so fast, and practicing really hard, and making such wonderful supportive friends, and having a blast playing dress up, that saying “no” isn’t going to be part of my vocabulary for the foreseeable future. And I just ordered a 3D carbon fiber cello, because I’m a handweaver with about 30 looms, (down from 64), why would I only have one cello… (The real reason is apparently I’m a klutz, and I’ve had three accidents with my wood cello, all from things falling on it while I was playing another instrument… I still have to send it in for repair from the previous accident).

And so, I probably won’t post again until after Thanksgiving; for all of you that use the time for quiet recharging, or spend the time with family and friends, for better or for worse, I hope that the holiday brings you a chance to give thanks, for what we have, community that supports us, and in spite of the curious world we are living in at the moment, with whiplash at every turn, there are always trees and bushes to tell us that spring will come again, and that life is renewable…

Stay tuned…