DianeHamillFiberArt

BLANKET!!

My friend, Sandra, is an entrepreneur married to an artist. She is a force of nature….always positive, energetic, and moving forward. When she saw one of my sweater blankets posted for sale, she purchased it as a Christmas gift for herself. I was honored and delighted to have one of my creations in her home. I was especially glad to see this particular blanket to to Sandra as it seemed to match her sunny disposition.

Time has passed and we have endured the triumphs and trials of the past years. Sandra got a new Airedale puppy and started a new business. I’ve continued to weave and create upcycled sweater blankets. My weaving and her new business came together and while we were visiting, she shared with me that, as puppies will do in a moment of boredom, the dog decided that the sweater blanket was a chew toy. OH NO!!! She asked if there was any possible way I could repair the damage.

What a challenge!! Of course, I had to give it a try. My first concern was what could I do to match the binding. I really didn’t want to replace the green merino wool binding all the way around the blanket. I had recently used what was left of these sweaters to make another blanket and couldn’t remember if there was anything of the original pieces left.

Like most “fiber people,” I tend to save all but the smallest scraps of anything. I suppose this most directly relates to watching my grandmother make beautiful quilts out of the smallest of pieces left from sewing clothing. There is a fine line between being thrifty and being a hoarder…..but when I looked through my box of sweater scraps, I found pieces of Sandra’s blanket….yippee!! Now all I had to do was figure out how to repair the blanket and make it look like it hadn’t been changed.

These photos show parts of the repair process. I couldn’t match each piece exactly, but I did use some of the same pieces in the original blanket. The entire repair process took about 6 hours, but the results were worth it. Here is a photo of the restored blanket. The repaired side is on the right of the image.

The dog is older now, so maybe the worst of the puppy stage is over. In the meantime, I know Sandra will keep this blanket in a safe place….there just aren’t enough scraps left to do this again!!!