A Hot Time in Town

We've had a heat wave this July.  The kind that encourages activities that involve staying in the shade, drinking cold beverages and thinking about things one should be doing.  Good weather for designing a fall project, dyeing warp yarns or recording attractive colour schemes seen in the garden.





Although our regular guild meetings have been suspended until September the Qualicum Weavers and Spinners are still busy.  The Commons Studio is open every Tuesday morning when the spinning group meets.  A group of weavers have been busy turning old jeans into rag rugs to sell through our "guild store".  Members of the knitting group are busy creating squares that will be turned into a blanket.  The blanket will be part of our fund raising efforts.

inside the booth

On July 28th we took part in Art in Action, an annual craft fair that takes place in the town of  Qualicum Beach.  Our Studio and Resource Centre at 744 Primrose is a stone's throw from the site of the fair so in addition to having our usual booth we decide to include an Open Studio event.  It was hot!  So hot that we had wilted by noon as had a lot of the folks attending the event.

a little shade helps

 Thank heavens for the cooler full of ice cold water and extra tents provided by the Farmer's Market and Walter Hoogland.  This year we had spinners at the booth and a second group closer to the Commons building. 


       

finished spinning at last

The Studio was refreshingly cool in comparison to the booth on the asphalt parking lot.  Attendees were able to watch the weaving demonstrations and browse our sale display in comfort.

rag rug in progress

mug rug in progress

Cloth being formed on a floor loom is more impressive than anything we can do with our small "demo" table loom.

We have set up a small guild store as part of our fund raising.  The store sells items donated by members with all of the proceeds going towards our guild activities.

guild store

In addition to the store we had a display of household linens, light scarves and shawls.  As usual people bought our tea towels.  Many of those tea towels went home as reminders of a pleasant summer vacation.               

Our next event will be at the Lighthouse Fall Fair in Bowser.  This is a great old fashion farm fair with great home made pies and competitions for everything from weird vegetables to scarecrows.  There are spinning, knitting, weaving and felting categories too.  We will be there with demonstrations looms for the little ones, spinning wheels and a display of our work.  The fair takes place on Saturday September 1st.  link for fall fair