Good Enough

Washing and blocking finished pieces works wonders.  After an overnight soak, a severe pinning out and two days of drying, my little woven sampler was much improved.  When I compare it to an earlier weaving I'd done in Terri Carefoot's class, I can see that my beat is more consistent in the latest swatch, which evens out the fabric.  The stripes are straighter. The draw-in was just under 1/2 inch, which is too much, but less than in my first pieces. (The finished size after blocking was 9/9.25 inches x 15.5 inches.)

Here's the weaving after blocking.  This is the side away from the weaver:

Here it is, beside the sampler I wove several years back:

I'm a process person; finished tapestries usually end up in my closet, to be hauled out for teaching purposes.  Most of them aren't good enough to be given as gifts, so I've acquired quite a stack of "samples." Sometimes, I wish that I could do the weaving without ending up with a product.  If I can make something practical, I tend to use it more.  

In many cultures, it's traditional to make bags from your practice pieces. These bags often hold your tools, your combs, your needles, perhaps a spindle.  Rather than toss this work into the closet, I decided to turn it into a small bag:

I played with various trims and finishes.   I bound I-cord to the seams.  I added pompoms, buttons and beads. Nothing looked quite right.  In the end, I decided that a simple piece should remain just that, so I sewed a bit of hand-braided trim to the edges and added a felted button I'd made years ago.  

Nothing innovative, nothing fancy, just a plain little sack to carry some lovely tools:

Namaste.