Finnish American Heritage Rug collection

Sunburst Rya Rug

The members of the Buellwood Weaver and Fiber Guild members decided at the September meeting to make Rug weaving our focus this year. The October meeting was held at the Finnish American Heritage Center in Hancock MI. The Meeting was arranged by Phyllis Fredendall and we had a great attendance. We were able to view and touch (with white gloves) the collection of some beautiful Rya rugs that are part of the Centers Archive collection.

Symbolic Rya rug with a cut pile

Blue Rectangle rya rug

Cut pile Rya Rug from a Wedding collection

Wedding rug label

Some of these Rya Rugs it is believed were Kits that were sold and produced by individuals.

Purple Rya Rug

Label on Purple rug

Our Show and Tell was some great projects presented by members of our guild.

'Crane' tapestry by Leslie

We were impressed. Leslie, our star for the day,

started the show and tell by sharing her Tapestry ‘Crane’ which she incorporated some of the Paper yarn from Bea’s spring workshop. Leslie did a lovely piece incorporating a Sand hill crane with natural paper used to indicate the reeds growing the landscape.

Leslie in motion with Paper Wreath

  She also finished her paper woven wreath that we all worked on at the Paper Workshop in spring.  She handed off the finished weaving to Carol who will sew it into a wreath and sell it at her shop with the profits going to our guild for future workshops.

 Leslie also shared a Tapestry rug she purchased on her vacation to New Mexico.

Tapestry form New Mexico

What she did not bring to guild was the dye work she has been doing for yarn for her tapestries. Leslie really is getting into the chemistry of dyeing yarn.

Leslie's dye progress

Steve shared his woven rug which he completed before they decided to sell the floor rug loom. Our other male rug weaver Stuart also shared with us some of his rugs, he is self taught and has been repairing and building his weaving tools. Stuart has woven many rugs since he started this hobby and has sold many of his finished rugs with great success.

Steve with his rug

Stuart showing his rugs

Our ‘Theo Moorman’ workshop was a great success, thanks to Ed Gray for sponsoring Nadine Sanders for this workshop in September.

Eve brought her finished sampler to guild, she had a problem with the loom she used at the workshop as she could not change the tie up for this weaving and therefore was not able to get the results the rest of did. She is working on trying another sampler at home on her own loom to get the full benefit of the workshop.

Eve's sample of Theo Moorman

Stephanie's Owl from the Cartoon

 Stephanie our newest member who also took Nadine’s workshop brought in her Owl she wove with the Theo Moorman tapestry technique we learned.

Mary's Inlay from the Cartoon finally finished

My Sample is still on my loom but I did finish my cartoon and am able to share it here. I still want to try the fabric weft weaving we learned in September as well as use the rest of my warp for another sample I really liked. Those of us who took the workshop are not sure if we will use this technique again, but the workshop was very informative and I learned a new way to tie on my warp using Shoe strings, which was very helpful.

I also shared my book of samples from Susan Wilson’s ‘Interlacements’ weaving workshop and my finished collapse weave scarf from my workshop with Marcia Kosmerchock’s ‘Twist and Stretch’ in June at ‘Prairie Winds’ the Midwest Weavers conference in Kansas.  

We had many other show and tell items but I am sorry to say I do not have any pictures to refresh my memory.

I am finishing this blog just in time for our November meeting at noon on Monday November 17th at Gloria Dei church in Hancock MI at noon. Please Join us for our show and tell and a short program - Jean will be presenting an introduction to rug weaving and rug finishing techniques.