Showing Our Stuff

 

Children's day at QB museum

The past month we've been out and about showing off our craft and meeting with our community.  We always have a great time at these public events, greeting old friends and making new ones.

Children's Day at the Qualicum Beach Museum is one of our favourite events.  Children love to make things they can take home so in addition to our spinning wheels and looms this year we made simple devices for making kumihimo braids that can become friendship bracelets.  From the photo is seems our group was just as fascinated with them as the children.

display of natural dyes 

We also took part in the Lighthouse Fall Fair with demonstrations and displays of everything from baskets to natural dyes. 

 

Rita and her rugs

Vera's basket

Like many traditional fairs the Lighthouse Fair encourages excellence in arts and crafts, the domestic arts and of course gardening/farming by sponsoring contests. 

While we didn't win anything in the rude vegetable or largest zucchini category our members did dominate the needlework section. 

 Linda took first prize with a top in handwoven yardage that mixes two different patterns in the same colours and threads.  The panels are reversed on the back.  It is often difficult to match patterns exactly with handwoven yardage and this design eliminates that problem.

Linda's blue ribbon vest

The Qualicum Weavers and Spinners sponsors a special prize for a hand woven shawl.  Below are the first and second place winners in this years contest.  The blue shawl is highly textured with glittering threads and random bead-like nubs.  The blue ribbon shawl was woven with a painted warp and textured threads so colours shift and move throughout the piece.   

Special Contest 

Our monthly meetings will resume on Monday September 25th.  The meeting is from 10 to noon at our studio.  Visitors are always welcome so come along if you would like to check us out.

We are busy with classes in September and October.  Check out the sidebar under workshops to see what is happening.  We will report on our beginner weaving classes in the next post.

   

Public Appearances

children's day at the museum

 Here we are with our looms all loaded and ready to introduce a new crop of youngesters to the magic of weaving.  It's Children's Day at the Qualicum Beach Museum.  This is a fun event that gives young and old a glimpse into how things were done in the past.  With an emphasis on "hands on" learning that line up of looms was soon occupied by mini-weavers learning how warp and weft make cloth.

first weaving attempts

the spinning tent

  In the spinning tent children (and parents) got to try their hand at spinning wool and plying yarn.  They seem to really enjoy making something they could take home and this year it was friendship bracelets.

Dahlia's at Fall Fair

Next we were off  with our spinning wheels and looms to the Lighthouse Fall Fair.  This event includes the traditional contests for baked or canned goods, produce, art work and crafts of all kinds.  Weaving is included in the needlework section. A number of our members came home with ribbons.

   

Rita's ribbons

sylvia's scarf

Pat's runner

We had a large display that illustrates our members' broad interest in fibre arts.  The display included basketry, felting, knitting, spinning and of course weaving.

drop spindle demo 

The basketry display attracted a lot of attention.  We are lucky to have an accomplished basket weaver in our guild and her workshops are very popular.
   

Of course our trusty and very old demo loom got another work out and the spinners continued to mermerize little ones who seem to be attracted to the revolving wheel.

ancient leclerc 2 harness loom

handspun yarns

Our next public appearance is in the planning stages after that we will be concentrating on our annual show and sale, Elegant Threads (Nov 18&19)

Meanwhile our regular monthly meetings will resume on September 26th.  If you would like to attend the meeting contact us at qualicumweaversspinnersguild@gmail.com

Weaving and Spinning at the Fall Fair

Long live small communities and fall fairs!  They celebrate the domestic and agricultural arts and remind us that people can still bake a perfect chocolate cake from scratch, grow vegetables and turn just about any edible item into relish or chutney.  Many of the fall fairs include weaving and spinning in their categories for awards.  If you have a fair in your area consider entering your weaving or handspun yarn.  It is another way to keep these crafts alive.  Congratulations to Margaret and Amanda who took home ribbons for their work.

The Qualicum Weavers and Spinners were invited to take part in the Lighthouse Country Fall Fair that took place this past weekend.  This is an event many of our members look forward too including Jude who is sporting her volunteer Tee shirt.  The weather was perfect, no rain, loads of sunshine and warm.

  In keeping with the event we decided our display would have a garden theme.  We added pots, rakes water cans and even old garden tools to our display.  We also included examples of vegetation, including scotch broom, that can be used to dye wool.  Check out Dyes From Plants by Seonaid Robertson for a recipe.


We shared our exhibit space with Dashwood Meadows Alpaca's and were pleased to include Amanda's samples of alpaca yarn dyed with natural materials.


The shawls in the photo were hung from old leaf rakes that are sitting in upturned clay pots

While our display draws interest, it is the demonstrations that engage people in a way that a static display cannot.  The demonstrations give us an opportunity to explain the art of spinner or weaving.  Yet again, our demonstration loom got a good work out while our spinning circle attracted a curious crowd.

Myrtle's blankets

Linda's yarn
 

  One of our younger visitors was kind enough to pose for me so I could take a photo of her butterfly face.

Fall Fair

The good old fashion fall fair is alive and well on Vancouver Island. This weekend the Qualicum Weavers and Spinners strutted our stuff at the Lighthouse Country Fall Fair. While our tomatoes and squash might not have been prize winners like those in the picture, a number of our members took home ribbons for their work. Hurrah to fall fairs for keeping alive the arts of hand spinning, knitting and weaving.

We also had great fun visiting with the folks who came to our display, eating home made pie and cotton candy and checking out all the other displays. Some of us also enjoyed the entertainment on the stage although the drum group really played havoc with the spinners rythmn and there may be some blips in the yarn as a result


The title of our show was from fleece to fashion and nothing fits that theme better than this pumpkin coloured caplet knitted from fine handspun wool.



The ever popular spinners were kept busy demonstrating how to turn fiber into yarn. They mesmerized little children, many of whom left clutching a precious sample of fleece.
A number of the spinners were working with space dyed rovings

The weavers contributed to the fashion theme with yardage, tops and accessories plus fashions for the home in the form of table linens, pillows, blankets and rugs.
We also introduce some of our visitors to the art of making cloth on the guild loom. Inch by inch the warp on the loom is being turned cloth by novice weavers.

Fiber and yarns are not the only things we weave with. I'll bet there aren't many weavers out there who haven't thought of making something out of roots or shoots or seaweed. Most of us don't get much past the thinking stage especially if the item requires some processing to make it useable. But....some of us do and the result is this display of baskets made from bull kelp.

A few people were brave enough to try to work on their projects although I don't know how you can keep your place while weaving a tapestry as detailed as this one and answer questions at the same time.

It took all day but, a determined group managed to cut miles and miles of hand woven chenille. As one person's hands got tired another one would take over. The chenille will be the weft for a plush rug. The rug will be the door prize at our fall show and sale Nov 25 to 27 th

I am ending this entry with my favourite display table at the fair. I love the colours of these dahlias.