Our last breakfast at Cajun Kitchen with Jutta and family this year. Happy times in Santa Barbara, California.
Santa Barbara One More Time
We’ve come out to Santa Barbara, California, one more time to visit with family. One of the high points of Jutta’s trips to America that I’ve noticed is how much she enjoys being so welcomed as part of the family. She’s met with our Aunt Ann and Uncle Woody so many times by now that I really do think she feels for them.
And It’s DONE!
This is Jutta’s last day at the farm after having been out here nearly 3 dozen times to commune with the chickens, help prepare things for market, enjoy many a lunch, and make friends.
This is Rob Lazzarotto who hates having his photo taken, but I just had to put this here for Jutta’s memories and to acknowledge what a great host he was. Jerry, Rob, Jutta, and I shared many bouts of laughter out on his farm which all made Jutta’s latest trip to America unforgettable.
This is Mary Walker, an expert in all things Navajo fiber culture-related, helping us remove Jutta’s rug from the loom and giving Jutta’s incredible labor a final stamp of approval noting what a great job she did on her first-ever weaving. Mary now has a shop of her own in Gallup, Weaving in Beauty, and offers Navajo Weaving classes taught by weavers on the Navajo Nation.
Off the loom, this Navajo rug 100%-made by the hands of Jutta is now ready to be packed in a suitcase to travel back to Germany with her. Congratulations, Schwiegermutter!
Home Stretch
With an incredible amount of stress, pushing herself to work this Navajo loom that wasn’t going home to Germany with her, Jutta has entered the final stretch.
Tonight is the last lesson at Fiber Factory out in Mesa as Jutta learns what she has left to do for this Navajo rug to be considered done.
Last Day of Fibers Through Time in Tucson
From Caroline: Here I am, felting away on the last project, a bag. The rocking action can take quite a while until the fibers are fused together properly.
My mother shows off her finished objects (she might have taken the flower to our room not anticipating there would be a photo). The book cover on the left is for a folder with felting instructions. The blue/black object is her bag and the round thing in front is a wall ornament.
The workshop was a lot of fun and so was the conference. I was glad to have my mom with me because mingling with other attendees wasn’t easy for me. She also was incredibly lucky and won two (!) baskets in the raffle. I was lucky too, because of course she didn’t have much use for all the fibery things in those baskets, one was a spinner’s basket with a Ken Ledbetter drop spindle (that I still treasure) along with lots of spinning fiber, the other was a handwoven wine bottle basket (which I still own and cherish) with some items that we regifted, although I still have some of the wine glass markers that I use as stitch markers. Before we left the conference I filled out a feedback questionnaire and foolishly suggested I could help with the website of the AZ Federation of Weavers and Spinners Guilds – which I ended up doing for about 10 years.
Learning New Tricks in Tucson
From Caroline: One of the projects Jutta completed at Fibers Through Time down in Tucson was this nuno-felted book cover. Nuno felting involves a very light, almost mesh-like fabric like silk, onto which a thin layer of wool fibers is felted. The result has drape, meaning it is flexible and thin, and can be used for light shawls or clothing – or a book cover.