Scarves and archiving

Just as I feel compelled to work in, and find expression through, the 'crafts of women' there are those that are drawn to working with the history and artefacts of our world and the people therein, to tease out the stories of where our lives have been. I find myself in the company of such people in being involved with this museum. It is not a dry, dingy, dusty place but full of life, the people of 'now' concerned with the stories of where we have been and giving a base to move on into the future.....

This last week I spent my time at the museum trying to ignore my 'summer' cold -
kindly shared around our household by my son, love him!!, and trying to finish a piece of weaving on my heddle loom. I really enjoy working with this loom, basic as it may be considered, but it does afford a great way to experience and explore colour and texture. Again I'd opted to make a scarf, something easily attainable! I had spun a hank of yarn many moons ago but didn't know where to take it next.... enter the wonderful little flower pictured below....

This little fritillary was braving the worst of North Yorkshire weather to flower its heart out - sheltered in the little garden plot that fronts the museum. There it was, the delicate colouring of the lovely spring flower echoed I realised in that mohair yarn I'd spun.

I wanted the weave to be delicate like the flower so I tried to keep the simple weave pattern very open with just a few 'ripples' of denser weaving to enhance the colour, being so open it does give a much softer weave and drape......

and being mohair with a silk binder its so warm and soft...

I'd set my weaving up in a lovely sunny part of the museum - by the kettle and coffee machine!!! doesn't everyone congregate around the 'kitchen'? certainly it happens here, volunteers and visitors alike!

A new aquaintance called in again - to volunteer help to the museum and to start some stitching. She wanted to work towards a patchwork 'bed runner' and just needed some pointers to set her off. It was a lovely idea of hers, to use material collected - favoured old shirts for example and I think its so good to re-cycle, re-use, re-invent and to love once again these materials - the true essence of patchwork.

For the rest of the afternoon there was the work of the museum going on around me namely archiving - sorting, checking, listing, tidying, trying to maximise the space in this small museum to the full and being the place that it is - loads of conversation, questions flying, people 'popping' in, visitors wending their way in and most important of all, of course, anyone want a cuppa? !!
Doesn't this start to change your view of how a museum might be?

Till next time....

Things finished and still on the go....

Hello again, I am still busy on the museum front but I did escape out of the Dale the other week-end to visit an arboretum close by. We had a beautiful day, if a little breezy!, and caught the grounds just right for there to be lots of blossoms on the go - wonderful.

Though not a tree this caught my eye which is actually a Tree Peony - these flowers were around 5" across (15cm) and just glowing in the sunshine, and very much appreciated by the insects as you might just be able to see....

Getting back home and downloading the pictures, over 150 of them ooops!, the peony stuck in my mind and I switched into thinking of a cherry red yarn I had spun (see my folksy shop), and out came my heddle loom and I was off...
I have to admit in trying for extra colour in the warp I got it wrong and used a yarn that seemed to have stretched and the further along I went the worse the tension got - I decided then to cut the piece short so to speak so did not have as long a scarf as I had envisioned, but phew! I like to think I rescued something.....
The red of the yarn with its changing hues echoed the brights and darks of the flower I had seen with the troublesome black in the warp thread symbolic of the black stamens of the flower.

In the end I had a 'cross-over' scarf, more decorative than to wind around loads of times for warmth.

To hold the scarf or simply to add extra decoration I crocheted this flower to represent the peony and rather than tassles at the end, or nothing at all, I crocheted a mesh from the red yarn that I then wove the end of the warp threads through to create a solid finish to the scarf that showed off all the extra colours I had tried to include.
This next project has definately had its origins at the museum...
On display is this lovely old rocking crib, its provenance is not known, but it has been used in the past by a local family in the Dale. I would love to know how many babes have been rocked to sleep in this, it is quite narrow so I think the babies must have been swaddled so no arms flailing!

Of course, quilting being one of my loves, I began to think of a nursery quilt. I had some modern prints in small 5" blocks, could I use them? How would it come together? This childs nursery rhyme book caught my eye in one of the display cabinets too - could the images in there help?

I loved the line drawings inside - ideal for quilting designs, and it was fun to see this picture not so carefully coloured in - who had done this, were they still around? Memories too of doing the self same thing myself and getting told off - did this child get into trouble for making their mark on its pages?

Back to the fabric, I decided to keep to a simple patchwork of squares - deceptive though as it is hard to keep all the junctions precise, no hiding them! For decoration I added some old lace that I had bought from the museum shop, setting it across the grid of the patchwork and echoing this new diagonal grid with the hand quilting - I love hand quilting...

The border of the quilt took its colours from the patchwork pieces and in the design of the quilting here I tried to mix the old with the new, line sketches of childhood days, some from the nursery rhyme book and some from the fabric itself. I will be finishing the whole piece off by adding my own binding - a bright zingy pink to lift the whole colour scheme. (That idea was given to me by 'mother nature' herself - starting this quilt, our apple blossoms were just bursting. Have you looked closely at the deep pink on the fresh blossom, the pale inner petals and the new leaves just bursting too - there is your colour scheme!)

Just the rest of the border to complete now, I'll show you when I'm done. I'll be calling it 'Nursery Steps', a little like my first steps here into discovering inspiration at the museum and in Swaledale - funny how all the ideas coalesce in one piece of work!!