What a wonderful weekend!

I am freshly home from teaching at CNCH.  The Conference of Northern California Handweavers was held in Sutter (or Sutter Creek), California at the Day's Inn there.  It was an intimate conference, small enough so we could all meet everyone there.  My class was full to capacity and what a lovely bunch of weavers they were!

One of the real pleasures of teaching at a conferencee is getting to spend time with friends of long standing who are there as presenters.  It was such a pleasure to have time with Sara Lamb, Linda Ligon, Deb Robson!  It was wonderful to see participants I know from other times and places and likewise wonderful to meet some whom I hope to see again and again.  If you are a weaver and have never been to a weaving conference you have missed an experience like no other.  To be in a place with many people who speak your language and are also enthusiastic about the things that matter to you is very exciting--even after all these years!

I have gone through re-entry today doing laundry, grocery shopping, visiting the library to pick up something being held for me and going to the bank.  Whew!  I am working on the warp for the new pieces now.  I thought I had the colors all picked out before I left on Friday morning but did some modifications today and now they look like this:

These are the colors I saw at the first camp site during the trip down the Grand Canyon in 2005.  The sand at the river edge and the stones down there looked like this.  I will add the blue colors in fine stripes to bring the sky to mind.  It was such a wonderful experience that I think about it often!
(Thanks, Joanne!)

I have also taken photos of the three pieces from the last warp that I washed, ironed, hemmed and in general finished just before I left home.

The first one is woven with both the warm and cooler colors:

Both warm and cool colors are used in the weft direction.  The result is very rich looking.  Odd that this warp, unthreaded, looked like dark abalone, isn't it?  The blocks of color always push and shove against each other making the maximum contrast.

The other two pieces from this warp are about the same size, one woven with the warm wefts and the other only with the cool ones.  They should probably be shown as a diptych:

I like the contrast between them and each has areas I can almost lose myself in.

The more I weave these pieces  the better I like the newer ones.  Am I improving as I go or just getting more in tune with them?  It doesn't really matter.  I only wish I had more time to make more before the show has to be framed and hung. 

Any weaver can tell you that weaving at 90 epi and 90 ppi goes slowly.  And now, back to it!