Block-Patterned Americana Pillow on the Wolf Pup
By Jane Patrick; designed and woven by Betty Paepke
As we head to Convergence 2016 in Milwaukee, we have been getting our show looms warped up and woven! We'll be bringing some gorgeous fabrics with an Americana theme featured on our Baby Wolf, Wolf Pup, and Standard Floor Loom. Look for our posts to come for our other Convergence fabric designs, along with the drafts and color palettes over the next few weeks.
This week, we have a gorgeous fabric for home decor! We chose a small block design, Johann Schleelein's No. 171, in Marguerite Davison's Handweavers Pattern Book (page 121), and used off white, navy blue and an orang-y red for an old-timey fabric that looks both traditional and current at the same time. We think it would make a terrific fabric for an accent pillow. We've provided the fabric details but not the specifics for making the pillow.
All of our fabrics have been designed, warped, and woven by our shipping clerk, Betty Paepkeāso wonderful to have weavers on staff! And such good ones at that.
Project Specs
Total warp length: 2-2/3 yards for a finished pillow about 15" square.
Number of warp ends: 205 (*includes floating selvedges), 189 ends of Aran and 16 ends of Fog Blue.
Width in reed: 16-3/4"
EPI: 12
PPI: 13
What You'll Need
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Warp yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport Weight Wool Yarn in N915 - Aran and 1335 - Fog Blue
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Pattern weft: Cascade 220 in 9567 - Smoke Blue, 9465B - Burnt Orange, and 8393 - Navy
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Tabby weft: Nature Spun Sport Weight in N915 - Aran
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4-shaft loom with at least 16ā weaving width
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three to four 11ā boat shuttles
Materials
Equipment
Directions
Threading: Repeat threading 5 times (block A and B), ending with the balance (block A). Thread Fog Blue where indicated in draft. Allow for a floating selvedge at both sides.
Weaving: Weave as close to square as possible, alternating pattern picks with tabby rows. You will need 3-4 shuttles, one for each pattern color and one for the tabby weft. Alternately, if you don't have 4 shuttles, you can just wind separate 4" bobbins for each color and change them in your shuttle with each color change.
Finishing: Remove the fabric from the loom and repair any mistakes. Hand wash in warm water, rinse in cool water and lay flat to dry. If more fulling is needed, wet the fabric and place in a warm dryer for a few minutes watching carefully until finished to the desired hand. Lay flat to dry and steam press.