Buellwood Weavers and Fiber Artist Guild Fall Retreat

Felting Fun!

Fall is a beautiful time in the U.P. of Michigan. We had our Annual Fall Retreat on the shores of the ship canal in Houghton, MI a few weeks ago. The weather was cool and a bit wet this year, no problem since most of our fiber projects were inside. We all got together for two days of fiber fun. A special thank you to all our members who taught workshops and to all who attended. It would not happen without you!

a few finished projects

A few of the finished projects were an Eco Dyed scarf, dryer balls, wool embroidery, woven Rep Mug Rug, marbling on cloth and a bow woven bracelet. We limited the workshops this year as it was a bit busy last year.

Saturday AM Karen presented a workshop ' Bow woven beaded bracelet'
It was met with great enthusiasm, and quite successful.This was a fun fast project after adding 100 beads to each side of the bow we wove the center adding one bead on each side.The finished bracelet wrapped around our wrists twice. It made a lovely bracelet.

Extra light was needed for our bow weaving

Bow weaving set up

finished bracelets

 Saturday PM, after a hearty lunch provided by our attendees. Dawn took over and showed us how to Eco Dye a Scarf. Dawn collected many, many bags of plant material for us to experiment with. Of course it is hard to use only a few of the many materials provided so we all had quite colorful scarves as a result.

Dawn introduced us to all the plant materials

rolling up our scarves

steaming our scarves

finished scarves drying

Dawn demo's making dryer balls

While the scarves were steaming we made 'dryer balls', also presented by Dawn. It was a fun, friendly experience. We had colorful dryer balls to bring home. Many colors to choose from and the dye did not come out in my laundry.

Dryer ball samples

pretty busy here with those dryer balls

Lovely Hemp Towels

Punch Needle Art

Melissa spends her summer in the U.P. and this summer she made hand towels.
Lots of hand towels and some out of Hemp that she bought on a trip over seas.

Melissa is also is a master of Punch Needle which she has made many ornaments for herself and family.

Melissa handwoven towels, just a few.

Later Saturday afternoon we had a slide presentation by Mary of her Cruise to Norway aboard the Viking Sea. Now a regular event to share slides form our guild members who travel.

 As we had a long detour to get to the Marsin House because of the Father's Day Flood that took out the road to the retreat house, we decided to not venture into Houghton and drive back out in the dark. A few of us spent the night and finished up our projects or spent time spinning and weaving.
Poppy wove a mug rug as did Karen and neither of them have woven on a loom. I was very happy for them to give this a try.  They both finished a mug rug and actually were quite satisfied about it.

Guild loom dressed for Rep Weave Mug Rugs

Laura Spinning

Karen weaving - a very new weaver but she stuck with it

 Sunday AM - Laura presented a workshop in Wool Embroidery. She had some beautiful samples to
show and a wonderful needle holder project for those interested.

Laura's sampler

It was a hit. With many choices of fabric to use for our embellishments on the needle case everyone dove in and selected the colors and wool fabric to use for their very own project. Lori joined us again this year from Seattle she was visiting her sister and had such a great time last year she planned her visit again to attend. Laura had a large variety of threads, beads and buttons to use as embellishment on the wool.

selecting our wool from the piles of  fabric available

Needle case cover

Lori came from Seattle to join us

the inside of our needle cases

At the right is our needle case with colored wool and buttons ready to be sewn down on the wool case.
Laura even brought label material for our inside of the wool cases. A very clever and complete project.

Anita is our resident Lace Maker and she was able to show us a little about her lace making supplies and techniques. Anita will do a more complete demo at our next guild meeting on November 12th

It is a time consuming and precise craft and created a lot of interest. 

Lace making supplies

the lace maker pillow

a brief demo by Anita

Sunday PM After another hearty lunch and a short meeting where we selected officers for our Guild and chose some topics for the 2018-19 Guild meetings. We were presented a workshop by John on 'Marbling on Fabric'. The process was quick and interesting. Definitely a first for me.

John showing the first marbled cloth

We used cotton fabric and droppers of acrylic paint that floated on top of the water. We then dipped the cotton fabric along the surface to dye our cloth.

clothes line once the rain stopped to dry our Marbled Art

Samples drying on the table

Although we were all tired and busy with lots of projects we had a friendly learning and sharing get together and I am sure there will be another Fall Retreat in 2019. 

Our next guild meeting will be November 12th at noon at Gloria Dei Church in Hancock.

bring your show and tell, lunch and come join us. 

Anita is going to have a lace making demo for us to try.

Our Guild was asked to Demonstrate at the 'Art Affair' in Houghton MI again this year. 

it will be held Saturday November 10th at the Houghton High School 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

Guild members are asked to contact Kathie Joyce if you can fill in a few hours to help out. 

We will have a loom and a spinning wheel for those interested in giving a demo or trying there hand  at Spinning our weaving. Stop by and join us if you are out.

 Mark your calender's 2019 Nalbinding workshop with Donna Kallner July 12, 2019 for our guild members a reduced cost is available. Space is limited to 12.