Sherri Woodard Coffey

Maybe I have a fixation for butterflies. Hmmm….You may remember the butterfly jar from several weeks ago. Actually, there are were two jars AND a basket full of these butterflies.

My friend Pat makes masks by weaving on a small loom and then embellishing them with buttons and/or whatever other found objects she has on hand. She is absolutely one of the most creative people I have ever met. I think Pat could find multiple uses for just about anything you handed her!

Ziti Mask, Pat Souder

A couple of weeks ago I gave Pat some of my butterflies for her to try out. She really liked the way the wool wove up, so today she came out and we sorted through butterflies. She ended up taking five pounds of yarn wound into butterflies! Who knew there were 5 pounds in those various containers? I have to admit, I felt a little sad to see them go. Silly, but I did.

Below you can see them spread out on the table, roughly in color groups.Here are some of her masks, still unfinished. The first one is the one she wove of my hand-dyed wool yarns. It’s not finished yet, and no, I don’t know how she does the shaping, but I do know it will turn out to be a beautiful, interesting mask.Below are more of Pat’s masks. She has been experimenting with many different types of yarn.

None of them are finished. It takes as long for the finishing as it does for the weaving. That’s probably the case for all weaving products.

I love the bottom one with the pink hair, although pink is my least favorite color!

Here’s Pat’s contact information: psouder@alterity.com.

Slideshow of the grand re-opening of Weaving Southwest here. I wish I could have been there. It looked like a “grand” party and a “grand” space.

  

 

 

 

 

 

That’s what they’re talking about on the news around here. I can’t wait to go outside to cover my newly planted garden in this cold, windy, rainy day-Ha! I hear, that as winters go, we are number four in the nation’s list of worst winters. That means a winter in which the deviation from the norm is so great. The cities are:

1. Miami
2. New York
3. Washington D.C.
4. Dallas/Fort Worth

This will be another day of weaving with a warm fire going in the snow. After all, I did go out in my babushka and gather twigs so that I can start a fire with ease. Every time I do that, I picture those old black and white documentaries depicting women foraging in the desolate countryside for anything to help their families survive. As you can see from the firewood pictures, I have used a lot of wood this year.

I am ready to start a new project. I had thought that I would do an ikat piece first, but have changed my mind. ‘Twill be another tapestry.

This should have been finished at least two weeks ago, but here it is, warts and all. I’m going to tie the warp back on so that I can be ready for the next project, whatever it might be.

I’m thinking ikat, at the moment, the same approximate size as this one. I’m continuing with the crosses from the previous pieces, except with weft-faced ikat.

Later, I have some zigzag designs and/or some designs incorporating squares. Zigzags will probably win out.

I’ve decided to play with design elements until the well runs dry—either permanently or temporarily.

If you do an image search for St. Patrick’s Day, you will find several for Google. Above is the one that is being used for this year, so it occurs to me that there must be a lot of pressure to design a new and unique one for every year. As weavers, we know that there’s really nothing new under the sun and, most likely, nothing that hasn’t been done before. But it’s still fun to try, right?

As I worked outside on Saturday, I was surprised that I actually got too warm in my long-sleeved shirt with a tee over it. Wow! it’s been a long time since that happened.

I planted my one of my garden beds—the other one is still just a vision in my head. Many years ago, I had a really big garden every year, and either canned or froze the extra veggies. The former garden area has become overrun with weeds, so this is an experiment this year with weed-control cloth. And when we get our dog days of summer, we’ll see how much I still care about gardening. That’s the time when it’s hard to keep everything watered, and the squash bugs breed like crazy. The paths in between the beds are to be 12-inch pavers, another grand experiment. I think I will use extra cinder blocks to make anther bed eventually.

Weaving still continues on the same piece. At least I only have about 9 inches to go, so there’s hope that it will eventually cut off the loom.

Layers, ©2009 Sherri Woodard Coffey, Hand-dyed wool tapestry

I feel like a kid on a road trip while waiting for spring. About the time I think spring is really here, it’s cloudy and cold again.

I’m trying to finish up the piece on the loom. It’s been so long, I’m going to remind myself of the way estimated look of the piece. Of course, this is just computer generated colors on the right—they never match the real thing. Anyway, I’m making a real effort to finish this week, with a goal of 3-6 inches a day.

 

 

 

Today I needed to do some errands, but went to town without my purse. Not an effective way to get things done. However, it gave me the opportunity to visit with a friend that I haven’t seen in several years. Nice!

Is anyone else having a hard time adjusting to DST?

This is the way the hyacinths looked in February

This is the way the hyacinths look now. And they smell so wonderful!

If we’re going to have Daylight Savings Time already, then it should be spring, right? I was thinking of that song, Spring is in the Air, as I did some garden chores so, when I finished, I found a couple of YouTube videos about spring. Warning: Some of the written text in the second one may be offensive to some people. I chose to ignore it and listen to the somewhat strange rendition of the song. The first video has nothing to do with the song I mentioned– just spring.