Treasure Chest

 I recently inherited my stepmother's old cedar chest. As I thought about arranging my newly remodeled weaving room, I knew exactly where to put it.

Cedar Chest in its new home under the front window.

It's not something I recall seeing at my paternal grandmother's house, so I'm assuming it was passed down through my stepmother's family or perhaps purchased for her or by her when she was a young woman. 

I couldn't find a date on the chest, but I was able to find information on the manufacturer. It was made by the Ed Roos Company which operated between 1918 to 1951 in Forest Park, Illinois. By the 1930s, it was the largest cedar chest manufacturer in the world, employing 400 people and utilizing something like three million feet of cedar annually. The chests were popularly sold as hope or dowry chests and were shipped all over the world.  

What treasures am I keeping inside it? 

Quilts!

Many of these were made by my great-grandmother. I remember as a very little girl, I was allowed to play with her 1-inch quilt squares. She was bedridden in the latter years of her life, and my grandmother said that her quiltmaking was a lifesaver. It kept her productive and creatively engaged until the end of her eighty-five years. The first four quilts shown here made by her.

Wreath of Leaves

My grandmother penciled the name of the pattern, the quilt
 maker, and the date of completion in the corner of each quilt.

All of Great-grandmother's quilts are completely handmade and it is remarkable that she hand-stitched eight to ten stitches per inch.

Desert Flower 1952

  

Rose of Sharon, or Garland Quilt. 1943

They're all in good shape, except a little dirty from use. My grandmother felt that they were meant to be enjoyed, so instead of keeping them packed away in a trunk, she would change them out periodically for the bedspread on her's and my grandfather's bed. When my grandmother passed away, each of her nine grandchildren were given one of these quilts. Plus I had one given to me previously, and received the one given to my stepmother. 

Although I have mostly applique quilts, my great-grandmother also made pieced quilts. This one is my childhood quilt, made for me by her, and one I loved dearly as a kid.

This one is dirty and badly love-worn and has no date. 

Other quilts in the cedar chest are of unknown origin.

Simple beginners quilt given to me by my grandmother. Either I don't
recall who made it or perhaps she didn't know, but someone in the family.

I believe the next several came down from my stepmother's family. There are no names or dates on any of them. 

a log cabin quilt

a tied quilt

double wedding ring

Lastly, there are a few made by me. Quilt making was one of my first adventures into textile arts (after learning how to sew and embroider).

My own beginner's quilt, 'Moon Over the Mountain' in phases of the moon with unrelated 
scraps of fabric. It was hand-sewn and hand-quilted. I used an old blanket for the batting.

This was my next quilt, hand-pieced and hand-quilted.

The crazy quilt I made for my dad and stepmom.

The story behind my crazy quilt is that it began with a series of embroideries I made over the years for my dad and stepmom as Christmas and birthday gifts. (You can see photos of the individual bird embroideries here.) Eventually somebody said they ought to be made into a quilt, so I agreed to make it. I got started on it but it was set aside when I had two small children to tend to. Years later, the quilt still wasn't done and it became quite the family joke where my dad would call and greet me with "how's the quilt coming along?" 

One day Dan and the kids said, "you've got to get it done." They agreed to do all the cooking and housework to let me work on it and finish it. Finally it was done! My folks got to enjoy it on their bed for many years, which I'm glad of. I'm also glad it came back to me. 

As you can see, my quilt collection pretty much fills up the chest. Heirloom quilts are indeed a treasure, and so perfect for a treasure chest. 

Treasure Chest © 2026 

by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Waiting Room Knitting

My husband had a knee replacement yesterday. In preparation for waiting room waiting, I decided on taking a book and a knitting project. At first, I thought I would knit some socks, but after leafing through my sock knitting books, I just couldn't work up the enthusiasm for selecting a pattern. Then I saw a sweater our librarian made, and she directed me to Westknits.com. I'd found my project. 

Source: Westknits

The pattern is perfect for scrap yarn, of which I have a lot, especially handspun. But I couldn't quite visualize how it would work out, plus I'd like to go for a longsleeve version. So I decided to knit a trial sweater with some of the worsted weight acrylic yarn I've collected over the years. 

Picking up along the edges of the seed stitch back panel to knit welts.

The yarn is worsted weight and the needles are US8. As a trial sweater, I have several advantages.

• No swatching to fuss with. Size and fit aren't terribly important here.
• I'll be able to experiment with the sleeve length. 
• It's using up yarn I don't like to work with anyway (acrylic). And I'm not especially attracted to those colors, so I'm not emotionally attached to it. It will be easy to gift to someone who likes it
• I'm not very good at serendipitous color knitting. I feel I need to follow a plan because I want to know how it will all come together, but in my mind a sample sweater doesn't matter. I admit knitting the entire back panel with one variegated colorway wasn't very creative. Hopefully I'll get freer with color choices as I go along.

The surgery went well and he spent a lot of time dozing afterward, so I pretty much had the entire day to indulge myself in knitting. It's a small town hospital and so neither overcrowded nor noisy, so it was perfect for contemplative knitting.  

Waiting Room Knitting © 2026 

by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Tips for Winding a Multicolor Warp

 

Random winter color theme warp

While struggling to figure this out on my own, it occurred to me to search 'how do I wind a random color warp?' Some of the advice is for multicolor warps rather than specifically random color warps, but the ideas sort of belong together, so I've made notes of the suggestions I learned.

• Some people cut each color when it's wound and tie on the next one to the cut end. Since I'm changing colors for every warp end, that did not appeal to me. At. All. 
• Madelyn van der Hoogt, on the other hand, doesn't cut. In her article, Ask Madelyn: Winding Multicolored Warps she states, "I never cut and tie as I change colors. Just wind the ending thread 4 or 5 times around the peg where it ends to secure it (either the start peg or the end peg). When you need to use that color again, simply pick it up and continue, leaving the windings on the peg." That's close what I've been doing, except at the raddle end, where I need everything to be the same length for the end stick.
• Ideas suited for warping front to back:
• Wind each color separately in its own bout and either sley each color separately, or select colors while threading the reed. I'm thinking this would work best for a planned color order.
• Wind all colors together as a group, then select colors while threading the reed. I'm thinking this one would work for my next seasonal color warp because I plan to tie it on. 
• Then there was this idea from Rock Lake Weaving's video, Changing colours while measuring a warp. The picture below is a screenshot from the video.

She threads the yarn ends through a reed to keep them from tangling. See the video for details.

I thought this a very clever idea and tried it when I started bout #2. But because I'm not cutting each color when it's wound and tying on a new one, I still had tangling. This time it was all above the reed, so that I couldn't rearrange the cones to sort it out. I'll abandon it when I get to bout #3, unless it becomes too tangled to proceed as is. 

So that's the notes from my research so far. If you have suggestions for preparing a multicolor warp (especially a random one) I'd love to hear them. 

Tips for Winding a Multicolor Warp

© 2026 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Begun! Leaf Motif Random Warp: Winter Colors

 I've started measuring my warp! The last of the construction details are done in my weaving room, so I can finally start on this project. I figured out a way to hang my warping board on my Glimakra and have made a start on my random winter color warp. This post is to document my start date, observations, and notes for next time. 

first 30 warp ends in 8/2 cotton

I'm following the checklist I created last month with a random color generator. 

My checklist. Working with groups of five helps
 me keep count of raddle groups and threading cross.

Things that help:

• Deciding beforehand that it would be a slow process. 
• In other words, be patient.
• Accept that the yarns will tangle and take the time to sort them out frequently.
• Know that I'll figure it out as I go along. 
• Label my colors with the color names on my check-off list
• Good lighting. The colors are close in value, so the browns especially are harder to tell apart.
• Check off each color on my checklist as I go along. 
• Don't worry if I think I'm making a mistake. It's random color order anyway, so, so what?

scraps of paper with the color names have been helpful

I don't have as much time for weaving as I used to, but making progress makes me feel good. 

Begun! Leaf Motif Random Warp: Winter Colors

© 2026 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Progress

While no actual movement, measurement, or manipulation of yarn has taken place, I'm still calling it progress because, at last, all the dusty, sloppy, messy jobs are done in our front room remodeling project, and the dust covers are off the loom.

sneak peek

There is still dusting, rearranging, and organizing to do in the room, but I can now actually see myself getting started on this warp. What a blessing.

Progress © 2026 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal