Our Irish Family

My husband John, cousin Breda, cousin John, brother-in-law Matt, cousin Anne, sister Cynthia, Carrick-on-Shannon, Aug. 30, 2013

I have been away from blogging for a while as I indicated in my last post.  The picture above is the last day of our visit to Ireland less than a month ago.  We were getting ready to board a bus for a 2 hour ride to Dublin Airport for a short visit in Scotland before returning home.  My sister, her husband and my husband had a week long trip visiting our Irish cousins and the homestead lands where my great grandfather was born and from which he departed for new opportunities in the USA in the 1850's.  The actual story of my trip starts in March of 2012.

Aer Lingus flight from Chicago to Dublin

My traveling companions, Day 1, Dublin, March 2012

One of my coworkers had found a wonderful deal on a trip to Ireland and was looking for people to join her in March 2012 with plans on being in Ireland for St. Patrick's Day.   So a group of us (eight ladies) made our deposits and departed for a 10 day trip to Ireland arriving in Dublin and driving to Adare on the West Coast of the Emerald Isle. I was super excited because seeing Ireland had always been on my "Bucket List". 

Everyone had their "must do" list for our Ireland trip.  Some of my companions wanted to see castles, the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula, a St. Paddy's Day parade, etc.  My desire was to travel north to Roscommon Co. and search for the birth place of my great grandparents, Bartley Conlon and Catherine O'Byrne.  Years ago I had been given an account of my Conlon family history by my father's sister which included the birth place of both of my great grandparents in Ireland.  As far as I knew, none of our American Conlon clan had seen the lands that my grandparents left nor made any contact with relatives there.  On March 16, 2012 I decided to hire the driver who had taken our group to Dingle to take me north to the town of Carrick-on-Shannon and search for Curries which I knew to be the birth place of my great grandfather.  It took us about 3 hours of driving from Adare to reach Carrick.  My driver stopped in town and started asking workers along the river front if they had heard of Curries or of any Conlons in the area.  Within about 45 minutes of landing in Carrick-on-Shannon my driver was knocking on the door of John Conlon.

I couldn't believe my eyes.  There was no doubt this man was related to me.  He could have been the twin of my cousin in Warrenton, VA, Bart Conlon, Jr.  John knew of my grandfather, Peter J. Conlon and had been trying to make contact with the American Conlons for years.  John took me to the place where my great grandfather was born pictured above on the river Shannon.  John now owns this land.  After exchanges of documents and family histories we finally determined that our great great grandfathers were brothers.

In September of 2012 my sister Cynthia arranged for a Conlon family reunion in Alexandria, VA.  My cousin John flew from Ireland to meet his American relatives (about 100 of them),  I flew from the West Coast to meet John again and attend the reunion.  I believe that as far as air miles were concerned, I had the longer trip.  I promised John that I would return to Ireland in the fall of 2013.

In April of this year my sister, Cynthia and I began plans for our trip.  My journey started by flying from Medford to Portland to Washington, DC to meet my sister and her husband.
From DC we all flew to Boston where we picked up our Aer Lingus flight to Dublin.
The day after we landed in Dublin we took the train to Carrick-on-Shannon.  None of us were brave enough to drive in Ireland (the left side of the road and all that).

John and his wife Anne put us up in one of the fishing cottages that John owns, feed us, entertained us and carted us about showing us the beautiful land and hospitality that is Ireland.  We had the opportunity to get to know our cousins better and to appreciate the lands that our forefathers left.

 
   Next post...I will share more of our Ireland trip and some wonderful pictures.

Been away...But here is The Studio

 Hello there! 

Been away from blogging a long time.  I took a trip to Ireland and Scotland with my husband, sister Cynthia and her husband Matt.  We were gone for the last week of August and the first week of September.  Had a wonderful time...talk about this in my next post.

The studio is completed (well almost).  Right now it is getting rain gutters.  The picture above is from the master designer...husband John, sitting proudly in front of his accomplishment.  We took this picture before we left on our trip.

Now to give you a tour of this 24' by 16' building---

The front door with motion lights,a porch light and an outlet in case I want to use my electric spinner, a deck with two sets of steps and  a new gutter.  (Notice the tools still scattered on the deck to give the impression that work is in progress...Hah!)

The right side of the building with three 3' windows

The left side of the building with two 4' windows

The back side of the building with one 6' window

Open the front door and this is what you see

On the left you will see a tall set of shelves with dedicated space for each type of fiber as well as a tall storage bin with drawers for all of my beading supplies, one eight harness Schacht floor loom.

 

An oak computer desk, my zebra chair, my mounted warping board and a cork board for weaving drafts.

My AVL 24 harness Workshop Loom as well as newly built fiber shelving, my weaving library and my carder.

Storage for my reeds, raddles, lease sticks, shuttles and assorted weaving equipment.

My rocking chair, CD player and refrigerator.  (My spinning wheel will go in front of the rocking chair)

 

My Macomber 8 harness loom in the center of the room.

 

A view through the French doors (Notice the doggie who would love to come in)

 

The view out of my back window

 

 

 

The view out of my side window behind my Schacht.

 

The view from my computer desk.

 

The closet that will eventually become a composting toilet.

 

Notice the labels...anyone who inherits my fiber will now know what it is.

 

My first warp wound in my new studio waiting to go on the loom.  It may be a while before you see the placemats from this warp.  I first have to honor my sister.

 

We lost Ginny (Virginia Lee Conlon Royal) today after a long battle with cancer.  I will be returning to our home state of Virginia to join my family as we honor her life.  She brought sunshine to many lives and was quite a crafty lady.  She will be missed.

 

There you have it.  The studio that started the blog.  Next post...Ireland.

Finished Fabric

 I have finished the length of fabric that I was recently on my loom.  It has been washed and fulled giving me 4 1/3 yards of 26" wide cloth to work with.  I just received in the mail some new fall patterns from Vogue.  I was thinking that the jacket of V8937 will work well with my new cloth.  I found in my stash the perfect lining fabric.  My woven cloth is cotton...extremely soft and very warm.  I need to back my cloth with fusible tricot stabilizer before I take the scissors to it to cut out pattern pieces.  Pellon makes a great product for this.  I think that I will make a prototype jacket first to address any fitting issues.  (I know already that I will have to shorten the sleeves.)  I also want to make sure that I have enough of my woven fabric to make this very simple jacket.  I have other patterns in mind if this one doesn't work but I am delighted to have this beautiful cloth to work with.  The joy of being able to weave!

In the meantime, a friend of mine, who is a prolific weaver warns to always have your next warp ready when you have finished the one on your loom.  Taking her advise I also wound a warp of a rayon boucle.  I found this at my ANWG vendor, "Newton's Yarn Country" www.newton.com.  I couldn't resist the color.

Since I am always in need of gifts to give, I wound enough warp for two scarves.  I decided that the color alone was enough for a design and threaded my loom in plain weave.  I threw in a few stripes of rayon chenille to give the scarves interest.

Just about done my second scarf.  My loom will have to sit empty for a while.  The studio is almost done and I will soon be moving in.  It will be a pleasure to be able to move around my large loom unobstructed and have beautiful views all around me.  Tours will be given soon.

Visit from a Fiber Friend

























I love attending fiber events.  I meet new people and make new fiber connections.  In 2010 I attended the ANWG conference at Willamette University in Salem, OR.  I took a 3 day workshop from Daryl Lancaster on garment construction with handwovens.  Sitting next to me was a delightful fiber artist, Sue Nylander.  The above picture is one of her art quilts taken in her Sequim, WA studio.  Underneath the quilt is some of her handwoven fabric from fabric.  Sue is much like me; fascinated with all aspects of fiber arts, drawn to it all and anxious to try anything that fulfills our need for expressing ourselves in texture and color. 

Sue and her husband are retired art educators who moved from California to the lovely town of Sequim, WA on the San Juan straits.  She is a quilter, weaver, spinner, knitter, crocheter, dyer, seamstress and master gardener.

Sue in her workshop with one of her deconstructed/constructed sweatshirt jackets

  Last August I was going to take a trip with Sue to Gabriola Island, BC for a week long dye workshop she was conducting.  I had taken the time off work, made arrangements for a flight to Seattle, bus transport to Sequim from the airport and paid rent for a little carriage house cottage for the week in Gabriola.  I was going to spend a week of fiber fun with some very creative ladies.  Alas, I learned that my younger sister in Alexandria, VA had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and had elected to undergo treatment.  I cancelled my entire week and turned my flight to Seattle into a flight to Washington, DC and spend the week with my sister. 

My sister Ginny



My sister, Ginny, had actually met Sue when all of my sisters and their husbands met in the Olympia Peninsula, Labor Day week, 2011.  Sue graciously invited us to visit her studio and gardens while we were all at a rental on Lake Sutherland near Sequim.

Ginny modeling Sue's "hippie" vest

I met Sue again at this year's ANWG conference in Bellingham, WA and found that she and her husband were traveling this August to a John Marshall workshop in No. California.  I invited them to stop by and stay over night on their long 2 day trip for some of our Southern Oregon hospitality.

Our local community garden provided the ingredients for our main dish.

Eggplant for Eggplant Parmesan





Our hills behind our house provided the morel mushrooms for our homemade tomato sauce.

Sue and her husband are on their way to a week long workshop with John Marshall but she brought me a lovely gift from their garden, a bouquet of red and pink dahlias.  We had a delicious dinner and a wonderful visit.

Weaving has connected me with many kindred spirits.   Have a wonderful week, Sue and Steve.


Blessed Rain

For some reason, Oregon has the reputation of being very rainy. Maybe this is true in Portland but not so here in Southern Oregon.  From May to October yearly we have days and days of sunny skies and dry weather.  Several weeks ago we had lightning storms in the Rogue Valley without rain which set off large wildfires in our area.  Over 30,000 acres have burned giving us smoke, haze, poor air quality and very little sunlight on some days.  I have on my computer pictures of my property in spring as screen savers to serve as reminders that rain will come and fires will go away.

   
Yesterday evening we got rain!  We got a lot of smoke in our area as the storms move in before we got rain, but we got "falling from the sky" water.  I never thought I would be so happy to see my deck wet.  We also got thunder and lightning with a lightning strike very close to my house.  Just before dusk one of the fire helicopters flew over my house, surely looking for any fires started by the lightning.  I woke this morning to blue sky and clouds.  We have more prediction of showers for the next three days.  A little smoke has moved back in but there is a promise that the rain will help with local fire fighting. 

Oregon is a beautiful place to live, but as anywhere, nature presents challenges.  For us in Southern Oregon, summer is the season of wildfire.  I moved to Oregon from the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  There I lived with hurricanes.  There is no prefect place to live just places we humans call "home".

On another note, all of the lights are working in the studio.  Work continues.  Move in time gets closer.

Two weeks ago



Last Friday
 

The deck is on, the lights work and the floor is ready to be installed.  My husband has done a wonderful job.  He should be very proud of his creation.

Latest on the Loom

Work on the studio has slowed.  The lights in the back half of the studio aren't working.  My dear spouse discovered this after the drywall was finished and painted.  Our construction helpers have gone on to other jobs.  We need the floor installed before I can move anything in. While waiting for the studio to be completed, I continue to weave in my little room in the house. 

Back in June I attended the biannual ANWG conference in Bellingham, WA.  For at least the past two conferences one of my favorite vendors, "Newton's Yarn Country" has offered tables and tables of tempting fiber.  The warp for my latest weaving is a variegated cotton flake yarn from this vendor, about 980 yards of it to be precise.  The weft is an aqua cotton flake yarn from my stash.  I feel great that I am using some of my newly purchased fiber with something that has been sitting on my shelf calling to me.

I threaded the eight harnesses of the loom in a combination twill , (draft # 727) from "A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns from the Friends of Handwoven", edited by Carol Strickler and started weaving away.  Because of the grist of the fiber, my cloth is weaving fairly quickly.  My intended use for my fabric:  a jacket or vest, depending on the yardage and width of my finished cloth. 

Stash reduction!  Does this mean that I can buy more fiber?

DKNY--Move over New York

I learned to construct clothing when I was seven years old.  I believe that my grandmother got me started by teaching me to make doll clothes for my Madame Alexander doll by hand sewing scraps from my mother's collection of fabrics.  Frequently I had the opportunity to spend two or three weeks with my grandmother during the summer in her country home in Gretna, Virginia.  My grandmother, Ginny Franklin, was a quilter and had a wonderful treadle sewing machine that I used to construct my first summer top.  I don't believe that we used a pattern, just two rectangles of cloth that would fit my young figure.  This was the start of my relationship with sewing and fiber.

Well things have progressed since then.  My oldest sister, Cynthia, became my sewing mentor, teaching me further skills beyond what my grandmother taught me.  I have had a life long relationship with patterns, fabric and sewing machines.  I have made prom dresses, coats, suits, pants, blouses, skirts, men's shirts, women's dresses, draperies, table cloths, bedspreads, baby clothes, clothing for my children, quilts, purses, totes, bras, panties, slips, etc.  You name it, I have tried it. I have a closet full of cloths, many of them constructed by me.  So why do I keep sewing ?  I love the challenge and there is nothing more challenging than a Vogue Designer pattern. 


My latest creation is a Donna Karan design from Vogue, #V1287.  I selected this pattern because I thought the design would be figure flattering and would be comfortable enough to wear on many occasions.

 



The pattern back shows the line drawing of the two piece outfit of a dress and slip.

 

This year I brought with me my "wish to construct" file of pattern jackets so when I purchased fabric at the Sewing Expo in Puyallup, WA, I would have a project and goal in mind with required yardage for any purchase.

 

This is what I found.  For my slip:

 

For my dress:

 

I had very little alteration to do to this pattern.  The dress fits comfortably and will be easy to travel with and wear.  The pattern suggest a stretch silk crepe for fabric.  I made my garments of stretch poly print for the dress and embroidered cotton lawn for the slip.  I bought the fabric at the Expo from Vogue Fabrics.  I would be happy to sew this pattern again but next time I will do it in silk.