October Meeting

Our topic for the meeting was 'cushions' presented by Tricia.  She had numerous examples of cushions she had made and each one had a story.  Other people brought along their handmade cushions, ancient and modern, and we talked about them all.  I din't take photos of this part of the meeting.  I did snap the show and tell though.

These linen mats of June's are so perfectly finished they could be used on either side. The yarn is a '3 cord mercerised linen' which has been maturing in the back of June's stash for some time. The mats were displayed at the Area Exhibition in Westport and looked lovely.

Also displayed at Westport was this cylindrical tapestry of Jan's.  She had gone to a great deal of trouble to mount it in this fashion and was surprised to learn that for the exhibition it was deconstructed and displayed flat - after which it was painstakingly reassembled the way Jan had sent it!  Those who saw it displayed said it looked superb.

Our newest weaver, Jen, has taken a giant step up and threaded her widest and finest warp yet.  This is a teatowel made with 8/2 unmercerised cotton and you can see from the close-up that she has been clever with designing stripes and changing direction of the twills. We all thought the colours were lovely too.

Tricia's garment is a work in progress. The fabric is the first she wove when she came to Blenheim and each time we see it it has been enhanced in some way. Note the shaping of the shoulders. Joan, who is modelling it here, was impressed with how comfortable it is to wear.  Tricia has added the embellishments as ideas have some to hand from various sources, and says there is more beading to come.

 This wrap is made by Rose with panels of alpaca and silk in plain weave and panels of lace weave in 16/2 mercerised cotton. The weft is also the mercerised cotton.  It has been notoriously hard to photograph as it is a really dark navy.  The panels are outlined in fine silver thread, each end being finished off with a little square 'diamond' purloined from a bracelet when the right beads could not be found. These are shown in the photo below but you will have to excuse the washed out colour of the wrap.

Another piece was the large throw rug shown in the previous post.

Joan also showed us some treasures she brought back from her travels and I will post photos of them next time.

Guild Day

Today was Guild Day and I thought I hadn't taken my camera so no photos!  As it happens it was in the bottom of my bag after all but as the only bit of weaving show and tell was mine it didn't really matter.  I took along a woolly throw rug I have made to make use of some stash of boucle yarn and bright turquoise mohair.  I have used the mohair in a rug before and the colour is a bit intense just used with  white.  This time the multi-coloured boucle warp has quietened it down a bit.  Here is a photo I took of it at home.

So where is all the rest of the weavers' show and tell?  Hopefully we will see more at our meeting on Monday night.

Joan had brought lots of beautiful examples of textiles from Kashmir, including a lot of tambour work.  More of that on another occasion.