First Stitches

February 5, 2022

Last December, a few weeks before Christmas, I spent an hour with a dozen or so delightful 4 year olds. A friend of mine and former co-worker, Ellen Lewis, who is now the program director at the Children’s Playhouse here in Boone, knew of my passion for sewing…all kinds! She asked me to come and share a few skills with the children who visit the Playhouse. I’m always ready to spend time with children and after such a long dry spell of little social interactions, it sounded like a wonderful way to spend my time.

The children were eager but they sat quietly and watched as I showed them how to thread a needle, how to knot it and then to slowly pull the thread first up from the back and then down from the front. Their attention was surprising as they sat entranced with this new project their hands and eyes had discovered.

I have my grandmother to thank for my interest in sewing. I like to think she would be happy to know I am passing my passion along. You can as well…share your passion with a 4 year old (or with anyone). You will reap the rewards.

Beth Reavis

Hearts for February

The Guild was challenged to create hearts and leave them in the Community for people to find. They were tagged with a note to let us know if someone found one. We actually got a new member from this effort. I added this post yesterday having only a picture of hearts from one member. After the post, 3 more flooded in. It’s wonderful we had so much participation!

Jeanne’s Hearts that were placed around the Appalachian Campus: Jeanne's Hearts

Mona’s Hearts: Mona's Hearts

Sali had this experience to share and her photo is listed below:
Here are a few of my hearts that someone suggested posting some on the web. These were placed in downtown Morganton, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and on campus, plus I left one in our mailbox for the postman. A friend saw this picture on Facebook, and asked me if I would teach her how to make knit some for her grandchildren.

Jean Marie has had two of her hearts reported on the IFAQH website. That is really cool!

December 2021 Meeting Info

We will gather on Saturday at 10:30 am at the Western Watauga Community Center for our annual potluck and fiber swap. Bring a dish to share and something fiber related to swap. If you are new to us and don’t have anything to share/swap, come anyway. We always have more than enough for all. Because this will be a party atmosphere, there will be no Zoom for this event. I encourage you to come in person if you are ok with this. Precautions will be taken. Masks are required in the building. We did this last summer as well and a great time was had by all.

 

Our bylaws committee was very busy during the month of November writing revisions for the guild bylaws which hadn’t been updated since they were written in 1984. We will be sending out information to our members on this sometime after our meeting on the 11th for  you to review prior to voting to accept them.

Dye Workshop Photos

Here are some pictures from our Dye Workshop last Saturday. The variety of fibers gave some wonderful color combinations. We had silk, wool, mohair, linen and cotton to name a few.
Janeene's dyed fleece

November 2021 Guild Meeting

We are holding our dye workshop tomorrow (Nov.6th) from 9:30-12:30. We will also have a business meeting via Zoom at 10:30 where we will discuss updating our bylaws, show a dye overview and share upcoming events so if you aren’t attending the dye workshop, please join us on Zoom at 10:30. This will be our meeting for the month. Next month we will have our Fiber Swap and Potluck on December 11th from 10:30-12:30. This is always a fun event so plan to join us if possible.

September 2021 Guild Meeting

Our Blue Ridge Fiber Guild meeting for this month will be next Saturday September 11, 10:30-12:30 at the Western Watauga Community Center. All are welcome to attend, but we will Zoom again as we did last month.

 

10:30-11:00 short business meeting– planning our booth at the Arts on the Mountain festival in West Jefferson Sept 25. Many thanks to Susan Payne and the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild for the loan of a canopy. All are invited to demo/sell your craft and promote the guild. Rita Collie is organizing this event.

 

11:00-12:30–Susan, Rita, and Rhonda will give demos of the natural dye process, showing color effects that can be achieved on wool, cotton, and silk fibers using only one dye–rose madder. 

We will also learn about how to use mordants in natural dyeing.

A review of the ikat techniques that were featured in last month’s meeting/workshop will give everyone a chance to catch up if they haven’t got their materials ready yet.

 

NOTE:  The dye workshop was originally planned for this September meeting, but due to covid issues we are rescheduling to next month, October 11-16, so that more people can participate. We plan to have at least 4 different dye vats then, and members can sign-up for different times and days to allow for social distancing.