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The Story of the Indian Blanket Flower Afghan … and A Giveaway

texasgabi

I’m still in awe about the fact that our afghan making the front page of the  “Easy Weaving with Little Looms 2020” magazine … here’s its a little bit about how it all happened …

When we moved to Texas over a decade ago, I fell in love with the vegetation that was so different from anything in New England … or Germany, for that matter.

The first spring I discovered what people around here call “Indian Blanket”, a beautiful ground cover with saturated yellow, red, and brown flowers on a sage green background. Instant favorite! Like many flowers, the pretty blooms only last a few weeks, and I desired to capture and preserve that beauty and actually use it like its name suggests, as a blanket (preferably without any snakes).

I thought of different techniques and yarns, made a few swatches, but it just wasn’t right. Until last year, when everything came together: I learned about the Scheepjes Catona cotton yarn and found the perfect colors to match the real plant. The woven samples on the original TURTLE Loom™ in fine-sett were a dream to make, to look at, and to feel.  Traditional flowers from quilt patterns served as inspiration to express the different color layers of the Indian Blanket bloom. But I wanted it more naturally than a traditional blanket, more like the real Indian Blanket patches on the meadow! Finally, the design for the Indian Blanket Flower Afghan was to my satisfaction: A contemporary hexagon flower afghan that looks like a zoom in to a real Indian Blanket flower patch, with bold flowers spread out, all naturally shaped with irregular borders.

It was  time to submit design ideas to the “Little Looms” team for the next issue … why not the afghan? I admit, I did sit down when I received the notification of acceptance!

At this point I would like to send about 120 hugs to fellow pin loom weaver Bonnie Visser, one hug for each hexagon that she helped weaving, so that we could make the deadline to send in the projects. Here is the first of many very delightful conversations that Bonnie and I had:

After that, Bonnie setup her famous workstation and went straight to work, delivering the most perfect 120 hexagons one could wish for!

With Bonnie’s and my daughter Edith’s help (yes, there is a secret mother/daughter flower in that afghan), we made the deadline. It was five intense weeks of weaving and sewing, with many take-out dinners for my family (not that they minded that, but thank you for your patience anyway). Here are a few “war zone” pictures of that time.

When you make this afghan, take your time! This is not a weekend project, but to finally being wrapped in the cool and soft cotton fabric is a second to none experience that I wish I could share with you right now.

Then, in February, fellow weaver Dawn was the first to tell me about the poll for the “Little Looms” front cover. Pin loom afghan or rigid heddle table runner? While the table runner looked beautiful, too, it was wonderful to see so many enthusiastic pin loom weavers not just cast their votes but also comment. Pin looms are not toys, they are real little looms that let you make real projects. Only one’s imagination is the limit.

Lastly, a big thank you to the amazing team behind the “Easy Weaving with Little Looms 2020” magazine. In my opinion this is the best “Little Looms” yet, and not because of the cover. To many, many more years, and with many, many more pin loom projects!

Still reading? Oh, yes, the GIVEAWAY! We like to share joyful moments, so we wish to give away three print copies of the new “Little Looms 2020” magazine to three readers who leave a comment on this post, telling what you like about pin loom weaving.

The rules:

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