Summer Doldrums

This summer has been, shall we say, challenging?

I've been struggling mentally - having a lack of focus and drive to get things done.

 Finally now that I have some events scheduled I am at least feeling like I have been able to force myself to be a little more productive.

 

After the vendor event I was able to attend, it was determined that I really needed more denim rugs.

 They have always been a standard item in my inventory.

The last few years, I have had my dad cutting strips using my Frasier Rag Cutter.  He's pretty much stove up and can't get out and about like he would like, and I think him having this to do has given him the feeling that he is contributing.

Before then, I always ripped my denim strips.  I kind of like the fuzzy look on the rugs, as well as I think it helps with the absorbancy of those rugs.  But since Dad has been cutting, it gives me more time to sew strips, design and weave.

Here is the warp I put on.  I had had to order blue warp from my supplier, but they were out of the navy cones that I like to include.  I had to make use of the leftover bits in the stash and put more of the denim blue warp in this time.   I threaded it in the fashion to have mini stripes.   I kind of like it. 

The first batch of denim rugs I did five that were all the same length, all hemmed, and then had 2 rugs longer, hemmed, before I had run out of space on the take up beam.  Since then, I have taken another batch off and they are hemmed and ready for measuring and tagging for inventory. 

 I had about caught up with dad, and was basically out of cut strips so I went ahead and ripped three big totes of strips - these I sent over to mom and dads for them to clean the strings off.  This helps with my time at the sewing machine -   I will be starting on sewing those ripped strips as soon as I go and get the 3rd tote from them to mix them all together.

In the meantime, since all the same rugs one after another gets monotonous, I dug into my colored denim stash and came up with this.

Yes, this is all denim.  It's amazing the colors I find :)

And here it is being woven.  You can see the warp design here.

It's been very hot and humid here.  But dry.  The grass in the yard is crunchy and we could use some rain.  Last night we had a summer storm go over - Heavy lightning and very loud thunder - and we got about 3/4 inch of rain.  Just enough to make it even more humid.  As I'm typing, there is another storm grumbling in the clouds. 

I can't believe summer is almost over - and kids are going back to school.  

Where did the summer go?

All for now,
JULIE

Finally an event!

Finally, I have had my first vendor event for 2020.  This one didn't get cancelled!

I had never been to this one before as I usually have an event in my hometown.  They cancelled, so you know what?  This one was so good, I just may not make it back to my hometown again --

This event is Friday afternoon thru Saturday night.  They were kind enough to take me on Saturday only.  Glad that was so, since it rained heavily Friday :)

The weather the last few weeks has been oppressively hot and humid.  Saturday was not!  It was in the high 70's with scattered clouds.  Twas windy tho, as you can see by my billowing rugs.  I ended up taking down the side curtain - it seemed to stress the canopy less that way. 

Displaying my rugs was harder than normal.  Some of my go to display items are in stores, so I had to improvise.  The wind also made it harder to hang anything as it would just blow down.

In the end, I sold 6 tablerunners and 9 rugs.  Like I said, good day!  Even better, this was a no booth fee event this year....

I'm glad I was able to go this - it gave me an opportunity to unpack all the rugs and visually see what I have.  They have been packed away in their rolling suitcases - I have a spreadsheet of what I have, but I'm a bit visual oriented making it easier to comprehend with my eyes.

What I discovered was that even tho my inventory $ amount is good, it seems alot of my rugs are on the larger size.  I thought I had plenty of denim rugs, but most are 3x5 or larger.  I have a nice amount of runner length rugs, too, in assorted colors.

The plan is now to make denim rugs - I had to order some warp last night and I can start sewing strips.  I'll have to crack the whip and get my dad to cutting more!  LOL

It is hard to believe that it is August already.  Where has the year gone?

All for now,

JULIE

Salvaged warp

So the last post was about the brain fart...

I was able to salvage the rest of the warp and got four more rugs done.

These would be called mini rugs as they are only 18 inches wide.

It's a size that can be a floor rug, or a table topper for a bigger table.

Not sure why this warp surprised me for being done when it did?   When I look at the calendar, it was actually a longer turnaround than I normally have for a warping.

I have denim, red and white warp left over that I was going to do, and I was going to do more plain denim rugs, too. 

I could just rewarp in the blue colorway, but unfortunately I am pretty much out of blue warp!  I need to take a look and see what kind of order I can put together.  

In the meantime, I have some mug rugs to do on this divided warp!

All for now,

JULIE

Must have had a brain fart

 I've been happily weaving away

 On my patriotic type warp

 Thinking i had alot of rugs left to weave

Plans of what next

and plugging away at sewing denim strips.

But then suddenly....

I had one section that went slack.

I thought "what the heck?"

Somehow I had shorted myself drastically on one section...

I was so disgusted I didn't even take a picture.

I must have had a brain fart - and didn't put

the 80 turns on just that one section.

So now I guess I'm done with regular size rugs for this warp!

Pivot!

Now I'm doing 18 inch wide rugs for the remainder 

And there will be mug rugs, too,

after I finish up the wider section that is still there.

Sometimes I wonder about my brain....

All for now,

JULIE

Photo heavy post

 Plaid look with two colors

 Patriotic rugs with fringe

 Patriotic balance with blue on both sides, hemmed

 Patriotic balanced with blue on both sides, fringed

 Easter-ish colored table runner

 Pretty pale yellow tablerunner

Rust colored calico tablerunner

Very scattered here.

Too many things that need to be handled.

End of year/final business year for the parents --paperwork!

Part time job at the auto store.

Summer chores.

Still trying to qualify for just A LITTLE BIT of unemployment... I should qualify, but the $# they say I am worth is so small I have 'excessive' earnings by working my in town job.  Seems they haven't included my rug business income into the mix and it's impossible to get them to reevaluate.

Still working on clearing out the parents copious amounts of 'stuff' in the house.

Still trying to weave and produce in the hopes that there are vendor events to attend this fall...

(My biggest event in the fall has already been cancelled)

I'm trying to stay positive, but it's a challenge some days.

One thing to look forward to....

Three of my mares went to the breeding pasture.

Maybe, just maybe we will have 3 babies next spring :)

All for now,

JULIE

Labels

I've considered for years about whether I should permanently "label" my rugs.

So far I haven't, for many reasons.


What kind of label?
Cost and where to source?
Do I want to brand my rugs and present the 'name' rather than the product?

I'm not a 'brand buyer' in real life.

I really don't care what the name is on a product if I like it, it works, and the value is there.

I also think that mislabeling can happen.  The label doesn't fit the product, either from the design points, or from the perception from the receiver end.

So the other day, I made a comment on a facebook post.  I don't normally do that - more of a comment stalker/reader here :)

It was one of those supposed to be cute posts that involved animals - this one was a 'cute' puppy antagonizing a deer fawn.  

Many of the comments were on the line of 'oh how cute', 'I wish people could get along as well as animals', 'made my day' sort of thing.

From my experience - and education- of 'reading' animal behavior,  this was no love fest happening.

It was also illegal if a game warden wanted to follow the letter of the law.

My short post pointing out the distress signals in the video to try and educate - 'liked' by many in a short time by the way - was promptly deleted by the original poster, as well as all others comments of the same persuasion.

And then the LABEL  part of my story ....

The original poster then edited her post to say she had deleted and blocked all the 'ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS'  that were making negative comments!


I'm sorry, but I am SO NOT  an animal rights activist - LOL

I help raise animals for food.  I hunt. I have pets.  I even believe outlawing horse slaughter in the US was a bad thing to do, and I love and own horses!

What I can get behind is treating animals of all persuasion with dignity and care for the duration of their lives. And I don't do personification.

And at the risk of offending someone in this offense taking world we live in now....   I don't label my friends black, white, red, or purple.  They are my FRIENDS!  I don't see them as a color...

So the point about labels I'm making is:

How someone perceives me is ON THEM.   If you don't care to engage and be open to information outside of your own knowledge and experience, it doesn't really matter what you think of me. 

That poster is always saying she wishes everyone would be open to each other and respect each other for their own views.   Well, it appears to me she should look in the mirror and remind herself of that very same thing.

All for now,
JULIE

Not my style

I don't like fiddly things.

Busy work.

Focused repetitive work.

In other words I like to get in the groove and not have to think too hard!  :)   LOL

That's why I like making rag rugs. 

I don't HAVE TO measure to get a perfect size.

I don't HAVE to work with a pattern.

I don't HAVE to be perfect.

This whole rug goes against my grain.

I had to stop and start the two colors of weft....

I had to weave with a shot of warp in between each row to manipulate the warp color ....

And. It. Was. Hard.

:)

Several times I caught a mistake (missed doing the shot of warp between the weft)

Had to 'unweave'

That takes time.   It literally took me a week to weave this one rug!

I was SO NOT INTO IT...

I kept walking away.

It's finally done.  

I can move on to something I find more enjoyable.

It seems that alot of my daily chores these days are the NOT FUN variety!

All for now,
JULIE