Buellwood Best Fiber Challenge 2017 May 20, 2017

FULL HOUSE our guild is growing

Buellwood Best Fiber Challenge 2017

We planned this challenge at the suggestion of one of our members, to encourage our members to enter Fiber Art into local shows. This followed a program Phyllis did for us on 'Judging a Fiber Show in Michigan' , we were inspired to have own fiber Show. Our plan was to have the full year to create a quality piece of Fiber Art and bring it to the guild meeting in the Spring. Phyllis was asked to give a critique of our work, we first voted on the entries for a Peoples Choice Award of $25. This was followed by an explanation of our fiber work by each person. Then Phyllis was to critique our work for entry in a show. We had a nice turn out for the first 'Buellwood Best Fiber Challenge 2017'

The entries were:

'Soar' tabby weave and spinning by Carol

Lace bookmark by Anita

Beaded Butterfly by Sarah

Natural Dyed Linen stitch neck warmer by Dawn

Coiled Red Osier Dogwood, Spruce Roots by Karen

10/2 cottolin Hucklace towel by Melissa

Natural wool fleece felted pillows by Laura

'Looking at the World through my Eyes' silk fusion by Jean

'Spring Polka Fest' handwoven by Mary

And our 'Peoples Choice' winner is Carol

Congrats Carol

Show and Tell

Carol started our show and and tell with a simple felt marker dye demonstration. She stretched her untreated cotton cloth over a a cottage cheese container then decorated the circle with sharpie magic markers. She then used a cotton ball to apply rubbing alcohol (70%) to the cloth, waited a few minutes for the colors to bleed out and then she has a beautiful pinwheel design. 

 

Melissa has had a whole winter of weaving to share with our guild today. She just came back from a color weave workshop in Sonoma, CA with Sarah Jackson. Her samples were beautiful, although this is not her normal color palette, she was very pleased with the results. She mentioned she had never seen the tracking in weaving which she experienced in this workshop (see sample on the left). It was a 2.5 day workshop using summer and winter weave pattern with 8\2 unmercerized cotton. She mentioned that Webs has a unmercerized cotton that is a better quality. She also mentioned they used a color palette program to analyze a photo for colors. I believe I saw one on the Halcyon or Webs site last week. If I come across the name of it I will let you know.

summer and winter color sampler

Melissa also brought in some blue cotton mats that she wove using one warp and many different weaving patterns.

She shared a number of scarves she wove using cotton and a silk blend ribbon yarn, she washed the scarves in the washing machine and dried in the dryer. Unfortunately the scarves now have some permanent pleats in them. I am wondering if the silk ribbon had some polyester in it.


Last she showed us a knit 100% cotton baby blanket with cables that she has been knitting. Bright colors that baby will sure love.

blue cotton mats

Baby blanket

Karen showed some books she has come across this one is titled 'Beautiful Sheep Portraits of Companion Breeds' sorry I cut off the full name of this little fellow. It appears as if the sheep are posing in each of the pictures. A magazine that is like the Mother Earth News meets fiber arts called 'Taproot'.

Laura with one of her pillows

Laura has been felting with sheep fleece. Her samples of these felted pillows are delightful. She wet felted the backside of the cut wool together then backing fabric and embellishment to her finished pillows. She also uses needle felting in her work.  I am in love with the gray plaid pillow!
She suggested a book called Field Guide to Fleece by Deborah Robson for fleece identification. 



 


I was taking notes but I did not get the breeds of these fleeces she used. I think this is a new idea for a guild presentation?

Check out her lovely wrist warmers she made.

wrist warmers by Laura

Sarah shared her beautiful Grapevine basket which she calls 'Birds Nest' it is a a freehand, random weave basket. A lovely project with embellishment.

She also showed us a twined rug which turned out lovely, she a very good sense of color.

Last of all she shared a Pandora Box of beaded items she has produced over a few years. Some of the beading was on a loom and some not. My very favorite was the long green and white beaded dangle earrings that reminded me of the earrings we wore in the 60's She was a trooper and tried to model them for us, but they kept falling off. They are made of beads and Porcupine Quills.

Porcupine Quill earrings

Thank you to all our guild members for participating in the first Buellwood Best Fiber Challenge. 

It was a fun experience and I have to say it got me busy finishing something I have been working on.

I found a picture in some folders I was given of Mrs. Buell (our founder) 

that I would like to share with you.

The Buellwood Weavers and Fiber Artist Guild will meet next month on June 19th at Gloria Dei Church in Hancock, MI at noon. Bring your lunch and sometime to show. Our topic will be Central American Woven and Embroidered Garments. A number of our guild members were interested in her ware. A friend of mine who paints but does not weave and spent a lot of time in Central America has lots of handmade garments to show us. We will bring as much as we can carry.

July 17  Come Spin, knit, weave and chat, no formal meeting for July.

Also planning is in the works for our October 7-8 Retreat at the Marsin Retreat Center. If you have any ideas or what to help out planning we will be talking about the retreat at our June meeting. Contact Carol, Karen or Dawn if you want to teach or bring something for an activity. Contact Katie Jo or Donna if you have something for our pot luck lunch.

This Retreat is free to paid members and open to the interested public.