You will see the front of the Siblingstapestry. I promise. When I cut a tapestry from the loom the weaving is finished. But the tapestry is not complete until the finishing is finished. And I have substantial handwork yet to do before this tapestry is ready for display.
Cutting off the tapestry.View of the back of the tapestry. Non-distinct imagery.
I am securing the ends in a woven edging. Then, I will trim weft tails, stitch things down around the perimeter, and put on a backing. Additional hand-stitching work will stabilize the whole piece. When you see the Siblings tapestry again, you will see it in full view on the wall right behind my loom.
Warpends are woven together along the edge, and will end with a short braid.Edge will be folded under and stitched down before the backing is added.
Hope is built on promise. Do not forget God’s promise. Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. And, Jesus expresses the promise to His followers, I will be with you always. We see the tapestry of life from the human side, the unfinished side. Hope, paired with patience, takes us through the uncertain future. We have assurance of the Lord’s grace, His meticulous handwork, bringing His work to completion. In the meantime, we give Him our burdens and He gives us rest. As promised.
Lucia grasps Ari’s plump wrist as they bravely inch a step closer to the rabbit hutch. For them, it’s a step of faith. Sugar Pie, the bunny, is wide-eyed at their approach. You’ll see the bunny later in the weaving of this pictorial tapestry.
Lucia’s tiny thumbnail is on top of Ari’s hand. Contrast in skin color is exaggerated to make the two arms distinct from each other.Five shades of orange/red butterflies are used to make the fabric of Lucia’s orange shirt.
It is a huge challenge to work on one element, like the hands, while not being able to see it in the context of the whole picture. The row-by-row weaving is an act of faith. I peer through the wrong end of the binoculars, and stand on a chair to take pictures. And I’m reassured about the outcome. It’s not blind faith. It’s a series of carefully reasoned and thought-out steps.
Gaining a higher perspective by standing on a chair.
We see only a small slice of life at a time. Where do my day-to-day threads fit in the context of the big picture of a lifetime? Grace is amazing! Grace is unearned good favor. Grace is a final tapestry that makes sense of all the wanderings. Grace is good favor extended by God to all who trust Jesus. So, with God’s grace we walk by faith, with carefully reasoned and thought-out steps. And we extend grace at every opportunity, holding the wrist of our fellow adventurer to walk by faith together.
Adding draw cords. I stand on the foot beam to reach up to the top of the draw frame to pull cords through the holes.Draw cords are added in order.
Adding all these draw cords and handles is a big job. It involves a cord threader and scissors and time—reaching, going back and forth, measuring, cutting, tying. Over and over. It’s not hard, but it seems endless. Yet for some strange reason this job is entirely enjoyable. I feel like an architect and builder, a dreamer and investor. It’s incredible to step back and see the structure that this effort has produced. And this is merely the set up. Can you imagine the weaving prospects?!
This is how we build good structures in our lives. Intentional, persistent, focused. Listen well. Over and over. The way we speak makes a difference in the way we listen. When we speak with grace, seasoned for the hearer, we ready ourselves to listen. Our cord threader is our unselfish attentiveness to pull someone else’s thoughts and questions toward our understanding. With this beautiful structure we are ready for anything. Accomplished through the grace of God, the sky’s the limit!
Drawloom with fifty draw handles, a sight to behold.
Pulling the draw handles for each four-thread unit of weaving is like doing counted cross stitch on the loom. I enjoyed cross stitch in the 1980’s and I am enjoying this drawloom version now. Very much. I started this Heart-Shaped Baskets table runner on Valentine’s Day—a fun way to celebrate the day!
Heart-Shaped Baskets. Adapted from a pattern in Damask and Opphämta, by Lillemor Johansson.Red 16/2 cotton weft on unbleached 16/2 cotton warp. The dark weft on a light warp makes consistency in beating that much more important.
Like weaving on any floor loom, I want to have consistency in my beat and in my selvedges. Inconsistencies in these basics can detract from the drawloom imagery of the final cloth. The main thing is to keep paying attention. And keep joyfully pulling those draw handles to create more hearts of love.
Grace is a gift of favor, not an earned reward. Forgiveness is the giving of grace. And gratitude results from receiving grace. Grace makes us graceful. Giving and receiving grace with consistency is what we’d like to see in ourselves. That’s when the love of God, in whose image we’ve been made, is most clearly seen in us. So we practice what we know to do. And pay attention. And keep joyfully weaving a heart of love, by God’s grace.
Montana is beautiful, with snow-capped mountains and big-sky sunrises! It’s there that I took Joanne Hall’s fantastic drawloom class last week. My confidence level about setting up and weaving on my drawloom shot up 100 per cent! (And Steve got to experience fishing on the ice with Joanne’s husband Ed!) Please continue all the way to the end of this post to read about submitting a question for Joanne to answer.
View from Hall Lane, in front of Joanne and Ed’s home.
Cathleen and Deborah and I wove on the shaft drawloom, the single unit drawloom, and the Julia loom set up with half-heddle sticks to weave opphämta. What joy! …even in the challenges of learning new things.
Single unit drawloom has the capability of weaving imagery, and even words, like “Lost Valley,” the name of our Texas hill country home.Single unit drawloom in Joanne Hall’s weaving studio.Joanne demonstrates how to use half-heddle sticks and shows us some opphämta samples.Pattern has Xs that show where to pull the shaft draw handles. The red dot of a straight pin keeps my place as I follow the rows from bottom to top.Pulled pattern shaft handles are secured in the hook bar.Normally, one two-ounce U-shaped weight hangs on each pattern unit. In this case, with 6/2 Tuna wool, two weights hang on each pattern unit.Wool yardage and samplers are unrolled and cut off the 120cm Glimåkra Standard loom. Oh, the colors and patterns!
Joanne taught us how to understand patterns and drafts, and how to make our own patterns. And we dressed the drawloom—we threaded pattern heddles and ground heddles, and distributed pattern shafts. Boy, did we students make mistakes! But with quiet Joanne, there is always a way to fix anything that matters. She is a picture of grace.
Deb separates pattern heddles that will be placed on the next pattern shaft.After undoing some beginner errors, we finally have all the pattern heddles in order (pointed threading) on the eleven pattern shafts.One weight hangs on the long heddles of each six-thread pattern unit.In the loom together! Karen (me), Cathleen, and Deborah enjoy the expertise and kindness of Joanne.New 16/2 cotton warp on the shaft drawloom. I emptied a few quills to weave the traditional eight-pointed star pattern. Meanwhile, Joanne watched treadles, lamms, and shafts to fine tune the sheds. Everything is just right!
Striving to look good to other people, we face unwelcome judgment. Striving to please ourselves, we face demands of perfection. But when our heart strives to please the Lord, we receive grace. Our failures fade in importance as our confidence in his faithfulness grows. Know who you are working for. The imperfect images we weave in the cloth are a humble gift of gratitude back our Grand Weaver.
Wool shaft drawloom sampler, at home now in my drawloom studio.Reverse side of wool sampler was face up on the loom.Single unit drawloom sampler. Our Lost Valley home, with details that remind us of our 2018 transition year.Draw cords and handles are in place. Forty more will be added soon.Shaft drawloom is ready. Single unit drawloom parts will be added later. Please excuse me now while I go wind a warp!
May your imperfections be greeted with grace.
Love and grace, Karen
~What are your questions? Joanne has answers~
Are you curious about drawlooms? Are you considering a drawloom for yourself? Do you have a drawloom and wish you could ask an expert for help? Please put your question about drawlooms and/or drawloom weaving in the comments below, or send your question to me through Get in Touch. Joanne Hall’s answers to two selected questions will be included in next week’s post. Please submit your question by this Friday, February 8.
