Weaving Amidst the Chaos

We had a pipe burst January 25th.  Since then, we had dry wall and floors ripped out, baseboards taken out, and half of our belongings are stacked in bedrooms, bookshelves, and floors.  My studio is stacked in piles in the kitchen, the hallway, my sewing room, the bedroom.  My loom sits in the floor in the living room, which isn't all bad, since I have plenty of room.  However, things are just a mess.  Finally, this week after lots of wrangling with the insurance company, getting lots of quotes from contractors, and finalizing numbers with the insurance company we are getting the drywall repaired.  Who knows when the flooring will be in....


But, I am trying to weave amidst the chaos.  Happliy, the tapestry seems no worse the wear for having the loom dragged down the hallway.  I am making slow progress on my peony tapestry while listening to Jane Eyre on CraftLit.

Weaving to the Last Minute

My children's spring break started March 28th, but we were leaving for Rome, Italy on March 26th, so I HAD to have my small tapestry finished for the ATA Unjuried show by then.  I wove like crazy, but life kept creeping into my weaving time.  I had agreed to substitute teach for a week, which turned into more days as snow days and closed airports delayed the regular teacher, plus I had children home sick with the flu and more snow days.  It was a very snowy winter here.  So much so, that during the last snow the kids didn't even want to get out to go sledding.

Anyway, I did finish at 1 am on March 25th, packed up the tapestry and got it ready to mail.  I wanted to sew eel grass onto the tapestry.  But the silk grass I made from the silk I had on hand did not work. I think the tapestry works without it, but I will be putting it on later to go with my series of fish.  I have at least two more tapestries I want to weave that include kelp leaves, now I will need to weave at least one or two more that will involve eel grass.

I have learned through this weaving process that eel grass, like so many other things in our environment, are under stress.  Eel grass provides cover for the baby fish that populate the Chesapeake and Atlantic Oceans, including bluefish which are what my tapestry portray.  Here is a glimpse.  I hope you will be able to see it in Rhode Island.

I did get this mailed on the way to the airport.  We found a postoffice just a couple of miles from the airport.  It will appear with the Central Virginia Tapestry Group's group them of Virginia Blues.