Holy Week; Easter Sunday

This Easter I had the honor to have my Easter Woven Panels back up at Jacob's Well, along with my white Easter Shawl that I wove last year during the Saturday Night Vigil. This white shawl was apart of my seven piece Lent Shawl series. Last year during Lent I wove each week a new shawl that was placed on the cross in the Prayer Chapel. Click this LINK to see the images. During the Saturday Night Vigil I wove the all white shawl. 

This year we moved the shawls to the cross in the sanctuary. Each week of Lent I placed a shawl on the cross and during the Saturday Night Vigil that was held 7:00pm-midnight, I took a shawl off the cross every hour. Right before midnight the cross was bare, symbolizing Christ's death. And at midnight, I placed the white shawl on the cross symbolizing, He Is Risen.

I was thrilled to share the stage sanctuary with the beautiful artwork of Jannele Mastin. She made these lovely hand-cut paper cut flower strung from the ceiling. She is incredibly gifted, creative and wonderful artist. She blew my breathe away by her beautiful installation. Thank you Jannelle for all your hardwork. 

This was a special Easter Sunday as well with our first every Jacob's Well Choir lead by Ali Ebright.

Weaving this Saturday at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center

One Thread at a Time, Loom Installation.....(a few mistakes corrected. lessoned learned:)

I can breath again..... A week has gone by since my First Friday Opening at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center in Kansas City. This Leedy gives you two months with your work up.  I was scheduled for April and May. This worked out great for me because about nine months ago I had a vision of making a large piece that was connected somehow to my little loom. When crunch time came in March with only a few weeks left to create pieces, I knew I was running out of time for my loom piece. With encouragement from my husband and some close friends, I decided to put the idea on hold until May's First Friday Opening. April's First Friday went great (will post photos soon) but I knew something was still missing. That feeling was confirmation that I had to create the loom piece for next month. I had the month of April to hand-dye all my yarn and weave away 13 yards on my big loom, along with setting up 15 yards of shades of blue yarn as my background piece. (I will post more photos soon of all my pieces.)

 It took me three days to set up my loom and I made one big mistake. In all my nine years of weaving I had never set up my loom without using paper to separate my warp threads on the warp beam. I had 11 yards wound on my little loom.

I was crossing my fingers and hoping that it wouldn't make a difference but I learned quickly after weaving four inches and breaking three threads. So, I guess lessoned learned, using paper with your warp yarn really does help with creating equal tension when it is time to weave. 

Here are some photos of me fixing my mistake. 

Cutting out all the four inches I wove last week.

Unwinding all 11 yards off the back beam.

Cutting paper to be placed in between my warp yarn threads.

Re-winding my warp threads using paper this time.

Because my tension was so off, I wasted more than a 10 inches of yarn in the middle of my scarf warp. (Sorry, if this doesn't make much sense;)

Re-weaving again.

I will be weaving each week, most Saturdays during the month of May, on my loom. These times will be open gallery hours. Be checking my blog and facebook for announcements on times. 

One Thread at a Time; Handwoven Textiles by Debbie Barrett-Jones

RE-Create Yarn Necklace Giveaway!!

I am happy to announce that I am giving away these two necklaces that apart of my RE-Create Project, to use what you already have creatively. These two yarn necklaces both are made with yarns that I used in my 2013 Lent Project. These little necklaces mean a whole lot to me because of their materials. 

HOW TO ENTER

So all you have to do is "like" my facebook posting of this 

and

invite a few friends to "like" my BillySue Textiles Facebook fan page. It can be 1 or 200, whatever you feel comfortable with. I greatly appreciate your support!

You have until Thursday March 21, 11:59. I will do a good old fashion drawing and will announce my two winners, one will get the all purple and the other winner the gray and purple necklace, on Friday March 22nd. 

Thanks again and good luck!

Here's a detailed photo of the two necklaces.

And here is a photo of one of my lent pieces last year.

And the Winner is.....RE-Create Project Necklace Giveaway

I am excited to announce my first RE-Create Giveaway Winner is....Claire Scott. Claire gets this handmade yarn necklace made with yarns used in my new RE-Create scarves, as seen below. The fuchsia to spice red yarn was dyed years ago for a gradation dye demo I gave to sophomores in the fiber department at KCAI. 

And the shade of gray tencel yarn came from extra yarn I dyed for my Lent project last year at Jacob's Well Church. You can see the gray yarn next to the purple in these shawls on the cross. For more info and photos of this project, click on this LINK. This yarn means a lot more that just yarn to me. 

Make sure to check my blog and facebook, BillySue Textiles for more announcements of giveaways I will be having during my RE-Create Project.

Gray Striped with Fuchsia to Spice with Spice Red Handwoven Scarf

Gray Striped with Fuchsia to Spice with Light Blue Cashmere Handwoven Infinity Scarf

Gray Striped with Fuchsia to Spice with Mix Handwoven Scarf

Gray Striped with Fuchsia to Spice with Slate Gray Handwoven Scarf

Custom Paper Silhouette and Yarn Dyeing Workshops

I am excited to be teaching these two workshops at the Kansas City Textile Studio. My sure to sign up today. Limited spots:) And sign up with a friend or two workshops and receive 10% off just by using WITHAFRIEND as your coupon code online at BillySueTextiles.Etsy.com

Custom Hand Cut Silhouette

Beginning Yarn Dyeing