Exposing Ourselves

Qualicum Beach Museum

August was a busy month for the Qualicum Weavers and Spinners guild.  We had fun participating in the Qualicum Beach Museum's Childrens' Day as well as exhibiting at the Lighthouse Fall Fair.

blue ribbon pears at Lighthouse Fair

Public exhibits and demonstrations are an important as well as fun activity for our group.  They give our guild exposure in the community and are a way for us to support the efforts of community groups with similar interests.  They also give us the opportunity to teach people about the basic processes involved in making yarn and cloth.  Maintaining knowledge from the past is a passion that we have in common with our local museum.

spinning lesson

The museum event includes a lot of hands on activities that let children experience how things were done in the past.  In keeping with this we set up our display to encourage little ones to try their hand at both weaving and spinning.  The photo illustrates a spinning lesson.  The parents seem to enjoy the activities as much as their children do.  The spinning lessons spanned a wide age range and attracted males as well as females as you can tell from the second photo.

adult spinning lesson

Our Lighthouse Fall Fair is an old fashion country fair that celebrates self sufficiency in many ways.  Like a lot of country fairs this one includes contests that involve old fashion home maker skills, farming activities or crafts.

Jude's start fish, part of our seaside display

There are categories for spinning, felting and weaving along with everything from wine making to grotesque vegetables.  The Qualicum Weavers and Spinners Guild sponsored a special prize for a hand woven shawl and the Weaver's Atelier sponsored a prize for the best woven item done by a novice weaver with less than 5 year's experience.

Pat's winning shawl

Benita's scarf

There were plenty of prize ribbons to be had and our guild members brought home their share, including two in the wine category, best red and best white.

Our first general meeting of the season is on Monday September 26th at the Baptist Church on Beach Avenue in Qualicum Beach.  The church is across the walkway from the old Via Train Station where we have our resource centre.  The meeting starts at 10:30 and visitors are most welcome.