Blanket Kit

This is my Blanket Kit.  It's about the size of a sandwich.  In fact this is a sandwich box.  The brand name of the box is Lock-N-Lock, and our grocery store carried them (in many sizes) for about a year starting in 2010.  Then, they went quietly out of stock.

Now you see that pretty little black-and-white pattern medallion is something that's already on the blanket blank.  I gotta confess:  I pinched it from my Mom-in-law.  I wanted some Aida cloth and this was all she had in the right count.  I felt the medallion was too pretty to wreck -- it's Hardanger embroidery -- so I'm planning to incorporate it into the saddle blanket pattern, somehow.  Yeah, it won't show under a saddle, but at least it'll be there!!

The paper pattern (with the paper clip) is, of course, from Chris Anderson's excellent book/CD of saddle blanket patterns.

What a great place for my old pliers, who managed to get themselves retired from active tack work by cracking at the base of one of the jaws.  Metal fatigue.  But oh, they've been through so much with me.  Other tackmakers may sympathize...  I need pliers to pull the needle through sometimes, such as at the ending of a length of floss.  They're strong enough for that.  And hey-presto, they fit in the box.

And isn't that the cutest little pincushion--!!??  It's supposed to be a tomato.  It's filled with fine sand.  Got it from my own mom.

The neat thing about a blanket kit like this is I can carry it anywhere.  It rides in the bottom of the backpack, and believe me, it's travelled.  This box has been to Europe, to Florida, to Colorado, to Arizona.  I sat in Philadelphia Airport working on the Mint O'odham blanket with this thing.  What it's taught me is the value of an isolated, portable piece of tack:  one that is socially acceptable... oh those loaded words!

I've made a lot of blankets over the years this way. 

You may notice some small progress being made on the Clyde Goehring breastcollar.  Here is a better Sneak Peek:

Yes, that's actually leather.  Although the packing tape reflects light pretty badly, you can still see that half the silver pieces now have their loops soldered on.  Slowly we forge ahead.