Finally, pictures!!

I am one of those fortunate few that celebrate 2 independence days. First, on July 1 I celebrated Canada Day. Being a proud Canadian married to an American, I also celebrate Independence Day in the USA! I did become a citizen a few years ago, finally giving up my green card but I still am at heart, a Canadian. It's kind of cool to be part of 2 wonderful countries.

As promised, I have downloaded a few of my pictures from Midwest Weavers Conference. I could have posted more than twice this number but I hope this gives you a bit of a flavor of what we did.

Our inspiration piece was one that was on the cover of Handwoven several years ago. Sheila O'Hara had told us to find the issue of Handwoven and use that as the basis for our warps on the loom. She brought the original piece which was so nice to see!!

 Taking that original idea, she changed it to where we were to also switch layers so the bottom one would come up and the top down in different areas. This is her sample.

 Before she got her jacquard loom, she wove pictures like this. This is a huge piece of graph paper with her picture on it and she would weave each row across, changing sheds are she went, to create the images she wanted on the loom. Talk about laborious!!! It makes my poor little sample look like kindergarten!! But, everyone has to start somewhere.

 Here is a section of my sample on the loom.

 I took pictures of other looms to show their warps and some of the samples they were weaving. There were at least 20 of us in class, so here are just a few of the samples.

 Part of Midwest that I enjoy alot are the exhibits. The first ones I saw were the guild exhibits. I think the guilds really work hard to create unusual exhibits with the theme they are given. Again, I just took a few pictures to give you an idea of what the 8 or so guilds did.

 There is always a Teachers Exhibit. Of course, I had to take a picture of Anita Mayer's coat!

 The Members Exhibit had alot of nice things. I only am showing one picture. I thought that this shuttle holder was a nice way to use pieces someone wove. They're each different and yet cohesive.

 They also had a Recycle challenge. I think this used to be a jumper. Sure reminds me of Ila's vest she did for us!!!

 I went to the Rag Rug meeting on Saturday. There were so many wonderful rugs to see. One idea that really struck me was this rug. The lady said her Mother was in an assisted living home and wanted to keep her hands busy to keep the arthritis at bay. So she took her yarn and a crochet hook. Her Mom crocheted chains and chains and chains. Bags of them. So, she wove them into a rug. I think this is an ingenious idea!!!

 The conference was at Finlandia University but they didn't have enough dorm space for all of us. I stayed across the river at Michigan Tech. Our dorms were nice. We stayed in suites which were new, clean and had floor heat! It was also cold and very rainy while we were there so we appreciated the heat. We didn't appreciate these guards they had on the beds. It was hard to get in and out of there!! One of my suite mates got mad after about 2 nights and decided they had to go. Luckily another suite mate had tools in her car and we took them off!! Shoved them under the bed!!

 I didn't take alot of scenery pictures especially since it was so misty and rainy all the time, except for Saturday. This is the view from my classroom on Saturday, the only really pretty day up there! This is a pretty deep river because all kinds of boats came down the river and they lifted the drawbridge in town for them to go through.

 Sunday morning we left and drove across the peninsula. We left at 8am and it was after 12 before we stopped to take this picture of the Mackinac Bridge.

 Before we crossed the bridge Linda and I had lunch. We got ourselves a pasty (pronounced pass-tea). Sometimes they're shaped like a half circle but this one was a circle. It's pie dough with stuff inside, beef, potatoes, rutabagas or turnips, etc.

I still haven't had a chance to finish my scarf that I wove in Sheila's class. I hope to do that this week and have a picture for you next Monday. I'm not getting alot of weaving done right now. Life this time of year is pretty hectic and weaving has to take a back seat alot of the time!!
Enjoy your day celebrating the freedom that was hard fought for in this country. May we never forget the meaning of that freedom.
Carol