Tawashi!

Old readers - don't look at the date! I've been gone, I had another child - she was literally interrupting this whole project. So authentic.
I'm not even going to start with an update just... here's a post.  Enjoy.

ANYWAY, I have been very slowly but surely stressing out more each day about the state of the planet. Looking at posts on Up-cycle Cloth Collective on Facebook has been an absolute balm.  It's full of proactive, kind, generous and creative people, true hope makers. 10/10 highly recommend.

The Tawashi video there looked instantly easy and inspiring - socks cut into rings, looped onto a make-shift loom and woven into a wash cloth!
One thoughtful person wondered about making tawashis with a strip of fabric, rather than socks, and I decided to give it a go.  In hindsight, she might've been asking what fabric to use when her socks are all knitted and her household is quite close to zero waste already, but I blindly barrelled on regardless coz what else are sleep-deprived good intentions for.

I chose a square cake tin for the loom frame because it's the only square thing I have with any strength. Five pegs each way.

I had this size 2 turtleneck stretch-cotton thing my youngest had graffitied with fabric paint. I cut a continuous strip from the hem and just eye-balled the cut-line an even distance from the edge the whole time, about 5cm (2") wide.

The red peg in the opposite corner was the turn from one direction to another and not one of the five pegs for each side.

Ran out of fabric!
I cut from the armpits, down the sleeve seam, and through the cuff. To make another strip, I cut from the chest towards the cuff, chucked a U-turn right before the cuff and let that be more strip, cut all the way back up the sleeve, across the back, towards the other cuff and just kept going until I couldn't get the width any more. Now it's just a turtle neck with triangles over the shoulder seams.

I overlapped the new strip with the previous strip's tail. Here it is with that thick seam sticking out before being woven in along with the tail.  All dandy.

Needed more blue pegs.

Lot's more. Look at that uneven scrunching. That's slap and dash.

Here is the red peg holding the start and tail.
I started tying it off beside that peg. I took the first loop off the peg and, working away from the tails, threaded the next loop into it, tying it off like a crochet cast-off.

At the pivot corner I twisted that loop, which probably wasn't necessary but I felt like it would give some structure and fill out the corner of the weave.

The tail was fed into the second last loop and tied off quite whateverly.

And now I think this will be a bath washer.  Though really it'd do better to be bigger and made into a bath matt!

It's hodgepodge and uneven, but duzzen madda a smaller version would do the trick too.

First thing's first though; that fabric left a blue fuzz on things so it's into the wash before use. That'll be the true test before we see how well a second watch actually cleans it after use.

D281: There was a sale!

As if you would've done better!

Finally bought these things for a neglected quilt!

Hey, at least I was sensible. I even did two purchases - one for the things I really wanted to get using my focussed take-no-prisoners brain, and then another for some other things with my wouldn't-this-be-luverly brain, once I was sure I had time.  So there.  
It's just that I could see the opportunity to buy without Bub's distracting was along way off in the future, and I'd already been putting off a few purchases for a while.  There are a few things I'd like to knock off while I think about the next quilt...

My cousin bought me an Ink & Spindle pack to make a single-bed quilt top for my 35th (?) birthday.  (It's very similar to this one, which is just droolingly good.)  I have pictures of myself working on it the night I went into labour, trying to get it done before the biggest interruption of my life, sitting on a towel just in case.  Well, now I hope to get it done before Christmas, not necessarily 'next'.  The animal one is coming along and I can't delay it if I can figure it out.  I'm pleased this stuff is here now, though, so I can at least baste it together if I find time, or need a break from quarter-circles!

This arvo I began using pencils to try and figure out how many of which colours to buy, but I haven't felt like I was really making progress.  I was trying to see how many browns, blues and greens I could get away with, and such.  You know how some explorations just feel like busy work, but you run it out in case you learn something, or until a better alternative reveals itself...?

Well, when I saw a batch of solids on sale I thought maybe working backwards might be more helpful.  The Kaufman Kona solids are marvellous, but I'd be lost with all that choice - I need a restriction, not 271 options!  The pencils aren't bright or bold enough and the few textas I have aren't a helpful range - but I do have enough to sorta match them to my new fabrics and plan effectively.  

So here it is: my set for the quilt.  All I'm missing is black and white.  I think I can get nine 6" quarter-circles out of each fat quarter.

Matching my new fabrics to the pencils and textas I have, for future planning.

D162-4: Cushion covers

My MIL ordered some Spoonflower fabrics some time ago.  They were destined to become cushion covers in the living room of their new home.

Love birds - twilight pallet by Patty Sloniger
and The Chaffinch by Ewa Bursztyka

Well I finally got them done!  

Thank goodness it was in time for her birthday.  Unfortunately, she was under the impression that they would be her birthday gift, which I didn't recall, so hopefully she wasn't too deflated when they weren't in the wrapped parcel.  Ugh! 

The left over fabric is going towards some curtain sash tie backs. 

I'm playing with some ideas from what remains after that.  Seems a shame to waste any of it...