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

Merry Month of May

Family  Day

May has been a busy month for the Qualicum Weavers and Spinners.
 This month we attended our first outdoor event of the season, the Qualicum Beach, Family Day.  Our booth was popular with small aspiring weavers and spinners as well as their parents. 

rosepath tea towel

The tea towel project finished up at the end of the month.  The floor looms in our studio at Qualicum Commons had been dressed with warps threaded in a rosepath pattern for tea towels.  Each weaver was assigned a length of warp.  The weft colours and treadling patterns were the weaver's choice. so the end results were quite different. Check out the finished cloth on the loom and see how the weft has altered the colours.

preparing for warp painting

We've been playing with dyes.  In order to create colour effects that change over the length of the cloth we can weave with different colours of weft threads or we can dye the warp before it is put on the loom and weave with one colour of weft.

The dye process is a messy so it is a perfect project for a sunny day and as you can see by the photos the weather cooperated.

applying dye

In the photos, fibre reactive dyes are being applied to cellulose based yarn such as, rayon, cotton or linen.  The yarns have been wound as a warp, tied loosely, washed well and then soaked in a sodium carbonate solution and wrung out so they are damp.  The liquid dye is applied in any order or pattern imaginable then the warp is carefully wrapped in plastic and allowed to "cure".  This type of dye does not require high temperatures to react with the fibre.

The results always include some surprises as the dyes tend to move and intermix to give intermediate results that are not always predictable.

painted warp with inspiring flowers

We will be taking a break from regular general meetings from June until September but interest and study groups will continue to meet regularly at Qualicum Commons on Primrose Street.  In July we will be opening up our studio to the public as part of the ART IN ACTION event organized by The Old School House Art Centre.  This is a major event that includes displays and demonstrations and even a painting contest.