(We very much regret that we had to cancel our April 2020 Show because of COVID-19 concerns.)
The Guild is now on Facebook also. Have a look at our Duneland Weavers Guild of Northwest Indiana page.
July 2020 Virtual Show and Tell
(Thanks for the photos and DIY captions, weavers, weaver/knitter and quilter!)
From Tom:
This is what I've been doing for the
last three months. The red/blue one is my first attempt at doubleweave
using
the book Doubleweave by Jennifer Moore. I think I undid more than I did.
From
Jeanne D.: Took some
time to dress this ...unpattern....in the process of starting my three
yards,
my pawl broke so now progress is really slow….I'm on a waiting list for
parts
from leclerc
Also from
Jeanne D.: Since I can't weave I've knit these wool socks while waiting
for my
weaving part..the socks are knit with yarn scraps.
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From Roz:
This is a weave from the handout for
a Bonnie Inouye workshop that I have long been interested in
trying (the
workshop was around 20 years ago!). The
weave is an Expanded Advancing Points Twill, woven on my 8-shaft table
loom
with 10/2 cotton set at 24 epi (originally warped at 28 epi which
sampling showed was
too
closely set). I’m thinking of trying the
weave with colors and maybe thicker yarn like cottolin for a towel.
From Joyce:
This is a piece of the uncut
fabric for my one-block wonder style quilt made of hexagons.
And this is
the stage of still adding
rows pinned on the flannel design board.
June 2020 Virtual Show and Tell
(Thanks for the photos and DIY captions, weavers and knitter!)
We have work from four weavers and one knitter this month.
From Margaret: This is a shawl Margaret wove for her daughter in Hawaii. It is undulating twill woven with silk (and it's quite heavy). She thinks she bought the silk at Midwest at Purdue about 20 some years ago.
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| The fringe on Margaret's shawl has 800 knots so it won't unravel. |
This
is a baby blanket Margaret wove for Guild member Pam's new
granddaughter. The weave is an 8-shaft overshot woven in
cotton
and cottolin. Note the different pattern on the back.
She also
wove a small
doll blanket or burp/changing cloth to match. |
From Sherron: This month I took Chris Acton's class on plain weave. I put on a 3yd warp of 5/2 cotton set @ 12 epi. I had so much fun playing with a variety of wefts. Thanks, Chris, for expanding my plain weave!
From Suzy: The gift of COVID...time to weave
Years ago this warp was slated for a "baby blanket", but time passed and the warp never got on the loom because I always got frustrated when trying to warp alone. I made a million mistakes....Never got it right. My husband would always lament that he missed the sound of weaving.... Now much later, wiith the onset of COVID-19, I decided it was time to learn how to warp alone with ease. I have to say that I've become proficient at it now. I can see where I'm making mistakes and correct them before weaving. Whew! This piece is 12 epi.... Some kind of cotton I purchased back in the day. I have no idea if it will be a throw, shawl or something else when it's done. I'm just grateful to be weaving it....Takes my mind someplace else during this time.
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From Mary: This is a baby blanket made of 90 pin loom squares using Lily's Sugar n' Cream cotton yarn. It is for a baby boy due any time now! The squares that look like plaid are actually variegated yarn that patterned on their own to look like a plaid.
From Sue: The only thing I have for the virtual show and tell right now is the baby sweater I knit for my newest great niece. (She's a cutie!)
May 2020 Denise Kovnat Virtual Echo and Jin Workshop Weaving
(Thanks for the photos and DIY captions from the five weavers who participated in the Zoom workshop!)
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Ellen's description of Echo and Jin:
Echo Weave is not a
structure on its own. It
uses a parallel
threading technique. It takes one line of threading and
doubles it with
an "echo" on another pair of shafts. Usually woven in 4
colors
for interesting patterns and iridescence. Jin is the correct
term for Turned Taquete, which has been used for 2000 years. Jin is
"warp-faced compound tabby." It's
warp-faced because of the 3-pick-long warp floats on both sides of the
fabric. |
[In the workshop weavers worked with three Echo tie-ups and treadlings and three Jin tie-ups and treadlings.]
From Sue: My sampler is Falling Stars. Here it is off the loom showing all the Echo and Jin treadlings I used.
Here are two areas of Sue's sampler in closeup: The warp is 5/2 dark and light green, and the weft is 10/2 blue.
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| Falling Stars in Echo 1 | Falling Stars in Jin 6 |
From Ellen: Finished scarves from the Echo and Jin Workshop woven in Falling Stars pattern with 10/2 bamboo warp in two colors.
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| Tencel weft in Echo | Silk weft in Echo | Silk weft in Jin |
From Betty: You will notice that I am very good at both threading errors and treadling errors! 😉 This weekend I think I fixed all my threading errors. I plan to use the rest of my warp for a scarf. I'll send that when it's done... but don't time me! I realized how slow I am at that workshop. I was the laggard, but I was truly a turtle compared to Ellen and Shelby! They did such beautiful work so quickly. But I'm learning and enjoying -- so that's what counts.
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| Falling Stars in Echo1 | Falling Stars in Echo 2 | Falling Stars in Echo 3 |
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| Falling Stars in Jin 4 | Falling Stars in Jin 6 | Falling Stars in Jin 5 |
From Margie:
These did
not photograph very well
for me, so I am sending the couple of them that were okay.
The patterns, which are readily visible when you are looking
at them
firsthand, do not show up well through the camera lens. The
Jin patterns
just were not visible at all through the lens. I left the edging on the
one
with yellow weft to show the color of the warp (green, red, orange and
blue)
which was the same for both pix, and the effect of the weft on that
color. They are both Chakras patterns in Echo.
Great class with
lots of added tips and tricks!
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From Shelby: I added an additional two yards of warp and wove this scarf at the end of class. I had a four-color warp in yellow, red, turquoise and dark green, and the weft was orange. This was an Echo pattern, but I combined a couple of the drafts that we were supplied with to add the lozenges at the border of the scarf.
May 2020 Virtual Show and Tell
(Thanks for the photos and DIY captions, weavers, spinner, knitters, quilters and dyer!)
Lots of fiber art this month: four weavers, one spinner, two knitters, two quilters and one dyer contributed photos and information about their work.
If you're interested in continuing virtual show and tell during the summer, please send me photos of the work you're doing with a caption for it and I'll post it for the second Saturday of each month.
From Paula: Three tencel scarves
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| From Jeanne D.:This is a throw made on my loom of wool, alpaca and tencel. It's a "Frozen" topped with "icicles" and snowballs. There are glitter discs making the snow. 43" by 88" long minus the fringe. |
| And two woven beading pieces made with delicabeads. Learned from Teena. My own pattern design. Not sure what will happen with them, maybe pocket front on a jacket. |
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| From Margie: I have a supplemental warp scarf in tencel and pima cotton. It was a fun project. It is the Turned Overshot Scarf pattern on page 51 of Deb Essen's book called Easy Weaving with Supplemental Warps. This pattern included a name/code draft for overshot based on the phrase " I WEAVE" for the supplemental warp. |
From Shelby on the left and Sherron on the right:
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| Shelby: This is a scarf I tried once before and made the mistake of inadvertently using both cotton and rayon chenille. This one, woven with rayon chenille only, not surprisingly turned out better. | Sherron: Since my previous post is STILL on my loom, I thought I would try a quick textured scarf from my stash. Novelty yarns for warp sett at 6 epi. Moda Dea Curous from Italy for weft (45% nylon:28% cotton:27% acrylic). I bought it years ago because of the texture. I think it was on sale as I bought quite a few skeins from Meijer or Joann's. In my stash where I realize I have TOO MUCH STUFF! |
| From Mary: Pair of socks knit from Melvenea's hand-spun wool yarn, dark purple in the leg and foot and orange pink in the cuff - and manufacturer's acrylic and wool yarn in multicolored red purple. These socks were knit for Melvenea Hodges by Mary Warren in exchange for two skeins of hand-spun wool yarn. |
From Terry: During April I was busy at home spinning away under quarantine.
And in May:
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| The picture above shows yarn I have recently spun from rovings and top. Trying to add some color to the mix. | In the photo above are fiber batts I have created as well as finished yarn from handmade fiber batts. The romney roving in the front was dyed with leftover Easter egg dye. The hand knit red hat in the back is made with handspun blue faced leicester and wensleydale fiber. |
From Sue: A baby sweater
From Joyce: A quilted wall hanging
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I finished most of Summer
Poppies
during the quarantine. I had bought the pattern and selected batik
quarters
when a Valpo quilt shop went out of business. After choosing the
fabrics (the
fun part) and tracing, cutting and ironing on the pieces, I added
light-weight
backing and machine-stitched around all the pieces, all edges.
My Viking
isn’t an embroidery model so a few edges look a little chewed. I
thought I was
nearly finished! Fortunately in my stash I discovered the perfect fabric for the back and with only 8 more finicky hours of machine stitching, I was done. Phew! Thank goodness for the quarantine! Now the question is where to hang it. |
| From Tammy:
This queen size quilt is one of the things I
have been working on. Only the top is done at
this point. |
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From Christina: Evo botanical printing using greenery from a floral shop.
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April 2020 Virtual Show and Tell
(Thanks for the photos and DIY captions, weavers!)
Three weavers and a weaver/dyer sent me photos of recent work they've been doing along with information to use as a caption. Please send me photos and captions about projects you are working on this month and I'll post them in time for the May 9 meeting date.
From Sherron:
Kitchen
towels from "Strickler
in Color". #43 p 16 8/2
Cottolin set @ 24 epi.
Weft 8/2 Cottolin. Woven size 24"x36".
After
washed, dried, and hemmed, 21.5x30". Each towel took
approximately 3
hours to weave without redoing caught errors. Am I super
slow?
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From Jacque: I love the idea of sharing what we’ve been working on during this time that we’re all stuck at home. I’ve been making up a sample book of wool yarn dyed with Lanaset dyes. I made up 5 gram skeins of yarn and dyed them in batches - one in each canning jar. That way you get seven dye baths in one dye session (or 14 if you have 2 dyepots).
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And Jacque wove a rug with 10 epi warp and 2" strips of quilting fabric sewn together at 45 degree angles to reduce bulges where strips are joined.
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From Margie:
I only have one picture of a throw which is lovingly named He-Throw by my husband. My tiny dog thinks it's hers. It gained its name because Ken is over 6 feet tall and nothing fit him well, so this particular double weave chenille throw is 60 by 72. When he sits down he can even cover his feet! The rest of my stuff has been just fun projects to stretch my skills. Several totes in tubular double weave, a couple of smaller throws, and LOTS of towels just on different patterns to try new stuff. It was so great to hear from you again. Looking forward to the seminar!
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From Ellen:
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This
is Lilacs Shawl
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Lilacs
Mobius Shawl
worn as Infinity Scarf |
March 2020 Meeting
(Thanks for taking the photos, Lisa!)
Our program for March was a presentation by Dagmar Klos, a fiber artist (spinner, dyer, weaver, felter) from Weavers Guild of the North Shore. She shared her rich knowledge of the properties and the history of human use of animal protein fibers, plant-based fibers, and synthetic fibers of many different specific types. After her very interesting talk, members had an opportunity for a closer look at the many samples Dagmar brought to illustrate her presentation.
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March Show and Tell
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| Joyce wove her pillow top with a weft of many colors of roving and neckties. | For her church, Lisa wove color-variegated ribbons into velvet yardage to create this wall hanging. |
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February 2020 Meeting
(Thanks for the photos, Sue! And thanks for answering all my questions, weaving and spinning participants!)
Our February program was our annual Spinners' and Weavers' Challenge. Four spinners and four weavers volunteered to be challenged and created very attractive and interesting yarns and woven items in response. They all thoroughly engaged the interest of the audience with their descriptions of how they planned and then created their yarns and woven items.
First, we heard from the spinners:
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Donna's card challenged her to spin a botanical fiber (flax, hemp, nettle, rose fiber, etc.) and create a texture in the yarn without adding new fiber.
On the left she is holding pineapple fiber yarn she spun and on the right, rose fiber or hemp yarn. She concluded that flax and hemp yarns were relatively rough and easy to add texture to while rose fiber was very slippery and fine, making it hard to add texture to. Pineapple fiber was intermediate, soft and smooth and able to hold texture. She was most impressed with the texture and interest of yarn in which she spun all the fibers together.
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Sharon was challenged to fractal spin a multicolor hand-dyed braid, worsted weight. She divided the braid of roving into lengthwise sections of different thicknesses, spun the sections individually, and then plied them together to create her lovely yarn. Fractal spinning made the color changes more gradual and subtle along the length of her yarn compared to the color changes that would have resulted had she used a simpler spinning technique.
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Chris's card challenged her to spin a 3 ply yarn using silk as a ply. She used her own hand-dyed wool when she spun two individual yarns in a clockwise direction. Next she plied them together in a counterclockwise direction to make a 2 ply wool yarn. For the third ply, Chris spun silk into yarn in a counterclockwise direction. Finally, to produce her very attractive cabled yarn, she spun the 2 ply wool yarn together with the single ply silk yarn in a clockwise direction.
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Leah drew two cards that challenged her to spin mohair as thinly as she possibly could and to dye the fiber before or after spinning it. In the photo on the left, Leah is holding her lovely, impressively thin, 2 ply mohair yarn. She began with mohair locks, spun two very thin yarns which she then plied together and dyed. In the photo on the right is a skein of mohair yarn she spun to show how using different techniques with mohair can create very different types of yarn. For this yarn she first dyed the locks and teased them apart and then spun them around a core yarn. The result is a beautiful, soft and slubby yarn.
The weavers followed with a slightly different format. Each weaver accepted five cards, one of which they were free to eliminate:
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Margaret's cards specified weave a piece with beading, in undulating twill, warp-faced, add a novelty and use two dye lots of the same color. Margaret eliminated "warp-faced" and wove three shawls in an undulating twill. In the photos above is her elegant undulating twill shawl that has beads on the fringe, the novelty of metallic gold weft, and two slightly different shades of gold in the weft that are discernible in the photos if you look closely.
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Margaret 's other two undulating twill shawls are shown above. On the left with a variegated weft and on the right with a 5/2 cotton warp and slubby cotton weft.
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Mandy's cards challenged her to weave using yarn from the yellow 1/3 of the color wheel, with not less than 20 ends per inch, striped, mixed warp profile and overshot on opposites. She eliminated "overshot on opposites" and chose to use a mixed weft . The very handsomely patterned striped towels and sample above were Mandy's first 8-shaft projects. The sample she is holding and two of the towels are in shades of yellow and related colors in her mixed weft. She wove them all with with 8/2 cotton warp at 22 epi and used 8/2 cotton and bamboo in her weft.
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Rebecca drew cards that specified that she use weft yarn from her stash, Ms and Os, sett no less than 20epi, with small geometric shapes, and analogous colors of the same value. This was her first opportunity to do a weaving of her own since opening Three Moons, and to meet her challenges, she wove this very attractive scarf in a honeycomb variant of Ms and Os weave that produces small circles and ovals. Rebecca's 8/2 variegated cotton weft yarn was from her stash and contained a purple that was analogous to, and close in value to, her rich red violet warp which she set at 22epi.
Shelby's challenge was to weave using a 12 dent reed, with alternate colors, borders and a stretchy texture, and in the form of a gamp or four weaves. She met her challenges with the four very attractive towels in the photo above. Their alternating colors and borders are obvious from a distance. To appreciate the four twill patterns that are in each towel, zoom in if you can. (Combining different twill weaves in a single piece can be very tricky.) Shelby also demonstrated that the towels were slightly stretchy (when pulled on their bias :-).
February Show and Tell photos
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Shelby knit the shawl in the photo above with 30% silk:70% merino yarn.
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| Above, Shelby is modeling her shawl. | Jan brought a scarf she had woven using acrylic yarn along with cotton yarn for a central stripe of monk's belt weave. |
A Very Special Occasion:
One of our members, Elouise Schaller, just celebrated her 102nd birthday. Elouise was a fine weaver who joined the Guild in 1984 and has been a good friend of many Guild members. Below is a photo of Elouise with her 102-candle cake at her recent birthday party.
Happy Birthday, Elouise!
January 2020 Meeting
(Thanks for the photos, Lisa and Tonya!)
Felting: History, Process and Uses was the title of Tonya Utkina's program at our January meeting. Her clear and very interesting presentation included some highlights of 8,000 years of felt making, the basic processes of wet and dry felting, the characteristics of fiber from different types of animals, and some examples of industrial as well as artistic uses for felt. She uses primarily merino wool in her felt pieces that range from elegant lace and ruffled scarves and vests to useful and sometimes playful accessories and items for home decor. The program was an excellent and inspiring introduction to the art of felting.
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Above are examples of the artful and colorful felted items Tonya brought to show us.
January Show and Tell
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| Jackie showed us the Pantone Spring/Summer 2020 Fashion Color Palette as inspiration for making items for the April Show and Sale. | Sue knit yet another baby sweater for the next member of her extended family. | Using Terry's handspun yarn as warp and also as weft at each end, Joyce wove this scarf. It also featured slubs of roving to add more texture and interest. |
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| Tom wove a cotton scarf for Mary using a barley corn weave pattern. | As her first ever weaving project, Tammy wove these two cotton wash cloths at Three Moons. |
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She dyed the purple yarn on the right in a Three Moons workshop after she spun it.
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Each scarf has a hole for the wearer to pass one end of the scarf through to make it a ring.
December 2019 Meeting
(Thanks for photos, Sue and Lisa!)
Our Annual Silent Auction was the program for our December meeting. Thanks to the generosity of our members, the Guild received more than $400 for next year's programs. After the auction, we enjoyed a delicious potluck lunch.
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December Show and Tell
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| Betty wove this scarf for her niece using the Chicago Fire Dept. tartan and tencel yarn. | Here is a "what not to do" project that Margaret wove with cotton chenille yarn and rayon yarn. |
Sue knit her shawl using merino, yak and nylon yarn,
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| Here is Sue in her shawl as styled by Shelby. | Mary knit a pair of socks using self-striping yarn. | While demonstrating at Art Blitz, Steve wove this 70" tencel scarf. |
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November 2019 Meeting
In Martina Celerin's fascinating program at our November meeting, she described how she emigrated from what is now the Czech Republic as a child, became a professional scientist in Canada and the U.S., and later developed skills as an extremely creative and prolific fiber artist. Her tapestries evolved from highly textured pictorial pieces into free-form three dimensional pieces. She incorporates into her work not only colorful yarns (woven and crocheted), but also horsehair, beads, crinoid fossils, rocks, bark and other plant parts, and many found objects.
In the photo above, you can see some of the engaging variety of dimensional tapestries Martina brought to show us.
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The pond plants and animals shown on this slide are parts of a tapestry now in a childrens' museum.
November Show and Tell
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Chris wove enough fabric for 6-8 fingertip towels.
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She also wove 2 rugs with clasped wefts.
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| On a 5-yard warp, Jamie wove a basket cover and 4 towels in different weaves and colors using cotton and cotton-linen blend yarns. | Susan's first weaving project was a set of 6 placemats woven in twill and tabby using hand-dyed cotton yarn for weft. |
Tom wove the inkle belt (using embroidery floss) and a multi-colored log cabin weave scarf.
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| For her first weaving project, Joy wove this alpaca scarf in natural colored yarns. | Terry brought many skeins of yarn she had spun with different grists, colors, and fibers, including wool with silk noil. |
Joyce showed us a cotton boll she had grown and on the left, the contents of one.
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October 2019 Meeting
(Thanks for the photos, Lisa!)
Multi-talented Amy Walsh, who is a quilt designer, owner of Blue Underground Studios and an art teacher, presented our October program, "Color Confidence". Her presentation included basic background on color theory, a history of the cultural uses of color, and encouragement for us to actively explore and make use of color in our daily lives. After we admired the large and very impressive collection of beautiful quilts she brought to show us, she led an afternoon workshop on practicing color theory.
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Amy's daughter helped hold up the quilts, including this richly patterned and lovely one.
Other Guild News:
On September 21 and 22 the following members volunteered to demonstrate at Art Barn's Art Blitz: Mandy and Steve Benson, Sue Degnan, Sharon EIchler, Terry Guenther, Margaret Jones and Donna Keeble. Thanks for showing the public the kinds of work we do and for representing the Guild!
October Show and Tell
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| Mandy brought one of the cotton towels she wove while demonstrating at Art Blitz. | The cottolin fabric for Mary's top and her inkle weave belt were woven by Tom. She sewed the top using a Handwoven Collection 13 pattern. | Terry, who was also at Art Blitz, showed us six skeins of yarn she had spun. Some are thick and some thin. |
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Margaret brought several items to show us, including this tote bag she fashioned using a rug warp. She wove the ends of the braided handles into the fabric while it was on the loom to secure them.
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| Melvenea is continuing her strip weaving project and brought this top and a matching skirt she wove as cotton strips approximately 4" wide and then carefully topstitched together. | In preparation for a sale at the Depot Gallery, Suzy knit a series of 25 hats. Each is unique in color and pattern. |
September 2019 Meeting
(Thanks for the photos, Lisa and Ken!)
| We met at Three Moons Fiberworks where Rebecca graciously hosted us. The program for this first meeting of 2019-2020 was a super show and tell of very attractive and creative projects members had worked on during the summer and brought to show us. Congrats to the members who entered county fairs and won prizes for their weaving! |
Here we are during the business meeting.
And here you can see some of the temptations we were exposed to during the refreshment break :-).
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| Sherron wove eight towels with random color warps; some were in tabby weave and some in twill. | Using green wool for the body of this duster coat cardigan, Jeanne then added red wool/alpaca yarn in the trim areas. | Sue wove towels in different colors and different weaves for a 4-guild towel exchange. |
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and the 8-shaft 5/2 pearl cotton rep weave rug on the right.
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| Mary brought this scarf to show us. She wove it using two colors (red and orange) of 8/2 tencel in a 4-shaft shadow weave. | The baby blanket in the photo above is just one of the many prize-winning woven items Margaret had at the Lake County Fair. She wove this with a combination of variegated cotton knitting yarn and 8/2 cotton in a twill. It was awarded a Blue RIbbon. |
Tom wove this 3/2 cotton twill fabric on his rigid heddle loom.
The fabric (11 feet long) will be made into a blouse.
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| Mandy was awarded a Champion Ribbon at the Porter County Fair for this scarf. The warp is cotton and the weft is hand-dyed blended yarn of wool, silk and a little glitter. | In a Michigan Fiber Festival class, Chris dyed these silk scarves using different mordants and leaves collected from nature to produce colors and patterns. | Terry felted this scarf in a workshop at the Niles Weavers' Guild this summer. She used a thin layer of roving in shades of pink and added contrasting bamboo yarn for an accent. |