Having successfully completed my own twin coverlets, it was time to weave another. My daughter-in-law had an antique bed in her guest room that would benefit from a coverlet that reflected its era. I began by sampling various overshot patterns that I then converted into 12 shaft twill. I chose a snowball with tree border design that I found in Mary Atwater’s The Shuttle-Craft Book of American hand-Weaving, #210 a and b.

                                          Original 4 shaft snowball                                                                    12 shaft twill snowball conversion

The warp was 24 epi 10/2 white unmercerized cotton, the weft a 2/20 Donegal wool in two tones of blue. I began with the body of the coverlet. The trees at the foot of the bed were woven first. I then changed the lift plan and wove the snowballs. My loom has an automatic advance feature that kept my motifs at a steady 20 ppi.
 
 

I had carefully planned the width of the body of the coverlet and revised the pattern so that I could weave the required number of snowballs plus the edge to balance the design.  There were nine motifs across, 1416 ends.  The length of the coverlet included the tree border and eleven motifs, plus the shrinkage estimate.  As the edges of the body of the coverlet were to meet the side border trees in a seam, 10 ends were added to both pieces on each side after the design was planned.  This center section was removed from the loom after it was woven.
 
 

The loom was then rewarped for the tree border pattern. As the antique bed was high off the floor the tree pattern was elongated.  A snow ball motif was placed in the center of the warp. This motif was my guarantee that the borders would match the center of the coverlet. I then wove eleven motifs.  The borders were removed from the loom, cut down the center of the snow ball motif, and carefully serged to keep the ends in place.
 
 

The tree borders were matched with the center snowballs and hand sewn. The corners of the coverlet were cut out as the bed had large four posters. All hems were sewn, corrections made and the coverlet was placed in the washing machine using cold water, mild soap and a very gentle, short cycle. The piece was spun dry and placed outside on the line to dry. When almost dry, the finished coverlet was steam pressed, a Tailor’s Block was used to press the seams down firmly. It was complete.
 

The coverlet was given to Sue Dion for Christmas, 1999.