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<\/a><\/p>\nLook at these 3-dimensional bird figures!<\/p>\n It was powerful to look at these textiles that have survived the centuries, some of them even a millennia. \u00a0It was not always obvious which ones were from the current era (meaning 6th through 14th centuries) and which ones were truly ancient. Could anyone stand before these expertly woven, richly colored and imagined figures without thinking of the hands that wove them, the ever succeeding generations of hands that reinterpreted these cultural symbols, and the climate and care of handling that have preserved these textiles for so long.<\/p>\n There have been glorious fall days for walking along my favorite river, but not any time yet to put my own\u00a0gardens to bed. \u00a0Funny how chores don’t go away; they just wait for us to finally pay attention to them. \u00a0Autumn skies dominate the views at this time of year.<\/p>\n I photograph this garden gate several times a year. \u00a0I\u00a0love the changing seasons in the garden it encloses, from roses to hydrangeas, and the lichen that grows on it.<\/p>\n At the height of the fall color I had a chance to visit Lavender Pond Farm<\/a> and see the fields of purple flowers against\u00a0a background of autumn trees and a sky full of puffy white clouds.<\/p>\n Bob and I were gone more than half of the month of October. \u00a0We visited Archie Brennan and the Schiffer Publishing\u00a0twice during the month and gave a number of talks about our extended visit to Cuba last winter.<\/p>\n Schiffer always does a such a nice job of welcoming us.<\/p>\n The camera equipment they loaned to us in order to do our photo shoot was really massive. \u00a0Bob is repacking the car in order to fit the mammoth carrying case of 3 strobe lights and 3 reflective umbrellas in our little station wagon. \u00a0The publisher is located in a beautiful farming community near Lancaster, and they have a lot of artwork on display in the surrounding fields.<\/p>\n It was a daunting job to photograph the tapestries that still reside in Archie’s possession. \u00a0We had two long\u00a0days getting set up to take the photographs, take the photos, and log all the information into a spread sheet. \u00a0We are pleased with how well it went, and Archie was quite a trooper. \u00a0We could not have done it without the help of a local friend and Wednesday Grouper and her partner. \u00a0Huge thanks to Alta and John who have now helped Archie get all those tapestries back into storage.<\/p>\n The week before the photo shoot Archie showed me his works and reminisced about many of the pieces. He has certainly lived a fascinating life and has countless interesting stories about every tapestry he has made. \u00a0What a creative mind he has! You can partially see that we are surrounded by works still in packaging from storage.<\/p>\n Getting down to business! \u00a0John and I are holding up “The Lymerer,” a reconstruction of part of the “Hunt for the Unicorn” series.<\/p>\n Archie and I are tired but happy at the end of a long day.<\/p>\n There is lots more work ahead on this project, but this was a major accomplishment on the road to having a book!<\/p>\n Bob has now given more than a dozen “Cuba talks,” and I have participated in a small way in some of them. \u00a0He has written an article for “Blue Water Sailing,” and I have an article in the current newsletter of the New England Lace Guild. \u00a0Every time I see our photos from the trip I still get a thrill. \u00a0As Bob says, we lived it once and can tell the story forever.<\/p>\n At this particular event, there was a Cuban themed dinner to go with Bob’s talk. \u00a0We wanted our picture taken with the chef!<\/p>\n And or course, our personal lives go on, filled with lots of family happenings. \u00a0We are now only a month away from welcoming our first grandchild into the family fold. \u00a0There was a lovely shower for the mother to be in October, and we attended that in between our trips to the publisher and to Archie. \u00a0I have been knitting like any enthusiastic grandmother and will soon be finished with my first attempt at knitted pants. \u00a0My good friend Mary, who often factors here as my lace making mentor, has shared an idea of hers for doing embroidery along the neckline of a onesie. \u00a0I will have to embroidery at least one onesie to go with the knitted pants. \u00a0Then there will be a Christmas sweater too. \u00a0It’s all fun and very therapeutic as we wait for Baby Nugget’s arrival.<\/p>\n There has also been a wee bit of weaving. \u00a0Well, not actually weaving, but preparations to weave. \u00a0I have taken quite a hiatus from my next Just Our Yarn project of weaving yardage. \u00a0I’m about 7\/8’s done with dressing the loom. \u00a0Initially this yardage was planned for an origami top, but who knows. \u00a0I just want to weave and can barely ever focus on what the fabric\u00a0might become.<\/p>\n Later this week I will participate in a workshop on rep weave with Lucienne Coifman,who recently published a book on this technique. \u00a0She is a well known teacher in Connecticut, and I’m looking forward to learning her technique during the class.<\/p>\n She requested that I make two warps for my assigned rep structure, and she also insisted that I warp front to back. \u00a0Well, it was a challenge dealing with two layers of warp and going front to back which I haven’t done in about 30 years. \u00a0Thank heaven I have a good friend who has done lots of rep and always puts her warps on front to back. \u00a0Otherwise, I might have been pretty embarrassed when the first day of class rolls around.<\/p>\n First warp, solid grey:<\/p>\n Second warp is shades of purple into red:<\/p>\n Getting the two warps on my Baby Wolf. There is only one thread that broke during winding on, and it is hanging off the back in the midst of the grey that is on the lower left. \u00a0I will rejoin it when the other broken end shows up during weaving. \u00a0I am ready to go!<\/p>\n So, lastly I’ll end with a couple of personal notes. \u00a0Bob finished renovating the master bathroom–yahoo! \u00a0It only took 4 1\/2 months! \u00a0It’s a lovely place for displaying some of our shells from the Bahamas and Cuba.<\/p>\n I framed my tiny tapestry “Postcard from Home: January Fog on the St. Mary’s River.” The\u00a0name is certainly longer than the size of the tapestry! \u00a0After it’s trip to the Orkney Island and a bit of Scotland, it now resides in our older son’s living room, on a table he built himself. \u00a0I should talk about his stellar cabinetry making sometime soon. I should \u00a0have taken a photo that showed the beautiful walnut slab he used to build this table.<\/p>\n There was one glorious day when I joined a friend on a trip to New Hartford and stumbled on this sewing\/quilting\/felting\/spinning shop that had a wall of merino rovings to choose from. It’s called Quilted Ewe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n