Exhibition at Fibre Spectrum, Nelson

For the month of January four Top of the South members of the Professional Weavers' Network are  having a small exhibition called Simply Weaving in Fibre Spectrum, Trafalgar Street, Nelson. Rose and Peg are joining with Sue Broad from Nelson and Jane Clark from Mapua  to show our work and do a little bit to raise awareness of PWN.

 This is Rose's corner

 And this is Jane's.

 Here are two of Peg's damask pieces

 and two which include Japanese paper, alongside  a hanging of Sue's woven with reflective threads.

And the wrap and scarf are Sue's also.  Obscured above is a stunning deflected double weave scarf of Sue's.

Although the exhibition is listed for the whole of January, as items are sold they may be taken away so if you want to see it I suggest you do so sooner rather than later.

More photos on pegsweavingblog.blogspot.co.nz and Rose's warpedtoweave.blogspot.co.nz

Show and Tell in September

 These days much of Win's work can be identified by her signature crochet medallions.  This time the flowers are surrounding small 'windows' of unwoven warp.

Win came in for some good-natured ribbing for bringing a piece of felting to the weaving group. She had a great time learning to make it and here Chris shows it off to good effect.

Jen had been adventurous and used one of the patterns from a workshop to make a scarf in a mix of wool and cotton.  She is musing about daffodils but others were thinking sage and primroses.

Rose had fulfilled a long-held ambition to weave fabric fine enough for a handkerchief.  Here it is, surrounded by tatting, also worked in a fine cotton. Now what to do with it?  And the rest of the fabric . . . more handkerchiefs?  Why?

The red piece is woven with an even finer weft than the white. Unfortunately the reed marks have not washed out in either piece.

More Show & Tell

 The first two items in this post came with our Richmond friends.

Note the fascinating braided twill. . .

and an interesting example of repp weave.

This is the detail of a wrap similar to the one Win had in the National Exhibition.  The side panels are alpaca.

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Among the 'tried and trusted' towels was this one from Joan. It would be such a pleasure to use.

Rose produced this lightweight wrap with bamboo warp separated by slub cotton panels of Bronson lace.  The weft is the same cotton.

National Exhibition 2013

Marlbourgh was well represented in the Exhibition with nine entries being accepted, one of them winning the Innovation award and one a Merit certificate.

This black alpaca wrap with a central cotton crochet lace panel incorporating crochet flowers was made by Win and very fittingly won the Innovation award sponsored by Kim Thittichai.  In the catalogue a different photograph shows it draped on a mannequin and it looks even better than it does here. Congratulations Win.

Chris's signature block weave mohair throw looked cosy and warm even though it is in cool colours. This photo under gallery lighting doesn't do it justice.  Below is her table runner, the end result of a group project on three-shaft petit point pick up weave. Very impressive Chris.

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 It was very satisfying to have four pieces of handwoven linen from our group on display.  June's runner is in the photo above and Win's below.

 These two runners are by Rose; the lower one was granted a Merit award from the Linen Trust.  Why that piece was singled out is a mystery because all the linen was beautifully executed. Perhaps it was because it was hemstitched.

The emphasis of the Festival was on Fashion and yardage of all varieties was asked for. This is Rose's piece in cotton, linen and silk.

The Felters were represented by Christine with this piece incorporating silver wire and mounted on perspex.  It was appropriately titled 'Every Cloud has a Silver Lining.' Note the red dot!  In fact our members had several sales to add to the satisfaction of being accepted.

Unfortunately I don't have a photo but Jan also represented the felters in the Runway Show. She entered a three-piece outfit named 'Hot Sunrise' comprised of a nuno felted pink skirt and navy top, complemented by a felt hat.  It looked great coming down the runway.

Well done everyone . . . but where were our spinners and knitters?

The Festival will be in Dunedin next year.  The time to start planning is NOW.

March Meeting Part 3 of 3

Show and Tell: Joan was pleased to finally get this finished as it was woven on an 8-shaft table loom. Evedryone really liked the mix of colours and the asymmetric design.

Jen has been making scarves and working through the patterns she discovered at our last workshop. Well done Jen.

 Rose had just finished her Cross Country assignment on Deflected Double Weave. The top photo shows front and reverse of one pattern and the bottom photo shows the difference after a minor change in the tie-up.

Nancy was just back from a cruising holiday and showed some paper quilling she learned on board.

Win also had an item to show but as it is under wraps until the National Festival in Porirua this month the photo won't be posted this time.

Heritage Day at the Park

Waitangi Day is Heritage Day at Brayshaw Park and, along with other Park users our Guild fronts up and flies the CF flag providing information and demonstrations.  It is just as well the Park authorities splashed out on a new flag because this is what the previous one looked like in the nor'west season a month ago.

Joan did a great job warping up the loom with a narrow 'Blooming Leaf' overshot design and brought along a sample of 'Cathedral Windows' quilting using woven blocks of the same design.

Joan's plan is for everyone (not just weavers) to weave a square for themselves . . . so take along a small amount of weft yarn of a colour of your choice and get weaving. Help is at hand if you have not woven before - and it really is easy.

Jan demonstrated inkle loom weaving, incorporating beads to fit in with the Guild theme for the month.

Rose sat in the sun and worked on her tatting and (inadvertently) her suntan.

Spinners gathered at the Girling Building and at times were hard to see for the crowd around them.

Well done!  A good start to the year.

OOOoops!

Sooner or later it happens to all of us.

This time it's Win's turn. After several successful alpaca warps,all of a sudden this one fought back. Yes, it was a different batch of yarn.

Win may not be able to hang out washing for a while; most of her pegs seem to be otherwise occupied.

And Rose is not immune to the odd overfilled bobbin.

Oh well, "keep calm and carry on."

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October Meeting

Win Not only did her homework by planning a blanket inspired from delving into the ancient magazines; she actually wove the blanket!  A very generous size, it was woven in two pieces and joined invisibly. It is lighter in weight than it looks and lovely and soft due to lots of mohair boucle. 

 Having to be 'on duty' at various displays and demonstrations has its benefits. Rose found a set of mercerised cotton and linen tablemats that have been 'maturing' for a while. The threads were drawn, the hems pressed and tacked into place so it was easy to sit and hemstitch a couple of them at the big stamp expo where we showed our wares.

And talking of the stamp expo, we just have to show one of the visitors we had. Her name is Fern. Isn't she beautiful? and the New Zealand Falcon had just been voted 'Bird of the Year' so it was quite special to see her up close.

Back to business . . . Rose added two more 'luxury yarn' scarves to her collection.  Here is a really lightweight one with 70% alpaca and 30% silk in white and a soft beige.

And this is 80% merino and 20% cashmere. A lovely handle.