ANWG Conference Recap

I recently attended the ANWG Weaving Conference up in Bellingham, WA.  I have to say it was a really nice conference, the conference committee did a wonderful job planning and putting it on. There were 538 registrants.

My traveling companions and I left very early last Wednesday morning to make the 10 hour trip north, what a long day with very few stops along the way. Thursday morning we hopped on the public transit (in the pouring rain) to explore Fairhaven which was a section of town loaded with galleries, shops and restaurants - very fun, some money left the wallets there. Then in the afternoon we checked out the conference exhibits, vendor booths and guild booths - very fun. Thursday night was the fashion show, some really beautiful pieces in it - I can see what scares me about entering something in the fashion show - sewing skills or lack of show up even on the stage.

Friday & Saturday were seminars, I had one klunker and two great ones. Friday evening we went on a field trip to a fiber mill and then an art center, our carpool driver was a delightful gal, she took us on scenic roads and told us about the area. The stop at Ferndale Fiber Mill was very fun - the couple owns a 1925 carder - we got to hear the story of how they got it and saw it in action.  After the mill stop we went to the Jansen Art Center in Lynden, we got a tour of this incredible center and then listened to a lecture called 'A Journey in Chilkat Weaving' - it was fascinating.

Saturday evening brought the banquet, awards presentations and our keynote speaker, Anita Luvera-Mayer. She is always incredible, I've taken a couple workshops and seminars with her in the past and have heard her as a keynote speaker elsewhere - always fascinating. I was surprised at the awards presentation at having my name called as having won the People's Choice Award in the Juried Exhibit for my ginkgo scarf. This is where my peers voted for their favorite. The photo below is of that scarf.  Fellow guild member Elaine won the People's Choice Award in the Open Show (non-juried) and guild member Carol had a jacket in the Fashion Show - we represented our area well.

I'm still trying to figure out how the judge for the Juried Exhibit judged those items, one of the winners in a certain category had horrendous selvedges, I'm not sure how the judge got past those. There were some incredible items that didn't win ribbons and others that were not nearly as well executed that did. Go figure.........

Sunday morning I attended the ANWG annual meeting representing my guild, it was interesting, lots of notes taken that I have to now decipher and share with my guild members. Since we couldn't leave early enough to drive all the way home Sunday we took two days to get home shopping along the way. We made a stop at Shipwreck Beads where I was very conservative in my spending since I hadn't used much I bought there back in March. Then to Ikea in Portland after checking into the hotel. Monday morning before heading home we hit the GoodWill in Portland which is huge and great fun, Fabric Depot, The Mill End Shop, Bob's Red Mill Store, Dave's Killer Bread Bakery & Outlet and then late lunch at Sushi Track in Wilsonville before heading home. What a great time we had - Kathy & Pat are very fun traveling mates. And I'm still playing catch up...........

Whoo Hoo

I got word Saturday that my white/mint ginkgo scarf made it into the ANWG (Association of Northwest Weaving Guilds) Conference Juried Exhibit - Whoo Hoo. The conference is June, I'll be receiving a packet with info on where and when to ship my scarf. Very fun.

Not much on the fiber front going on here. I did sew 2 more petal pouches to go inside the one I sewed last week to gift a friend today - she loved them. I also worked on a Mother's Day gift which I can't post until after the 12th as my mother does occasionally read my blog.

I did get a couple hours in at the loom yesterday - back to work on the towel warp I put on a couple weeks ago. I've been dreaming of what new draft I should design for the AVL.........a sea theme draft is to come but not quite yet, am thinking maybe vines & leaves, or vines & flowers, or who knows what.

Lesson learned on Saturday. I asked Sam to bring the power washer up on the deck so I could wash off the deck furniture - great fun. Then I moved on to the windows - great fun and I thought they looked cleaner until they dried, maybe a bit cleaner but the old elbow grease is needed to really clean them.  Lesson learned is when I moved around front and saw a hole in the flower bed that belongs to the dreaded ground squirrel - don't ever spray a power washer down a ground squirrel hole unless you want to end up totally covered in mud when it sprays back up at you. Funny thing is when Sam saw me after I finished he never mentioned that my face, arms, clothes were all covered with mud.

We watched two good movies recently - Life of Pi and Argo - highly recommend both.

Yikes, I pulled the trigger.......

I sit here writing from my dorm room on beautiful Willamette University just up the road a few hours in Salem, OR. This is the most beautiful campus I've ever seen with Mill Creek running through it and incredible landscaping. It's located across the tracks from Mission Mill Museum and directly behind is the State Capitol Building.

I arrived on Thursday, have had a wonderful time visiting with fiber friends, old and new. I took 3 great seminars; Solving the Mystery of Fit with Daryl Lancaster, Fiber Beads with Rebecca Smith and Weaving with Space Dyed Yarns with  Bobbie Irwin. Pictures to come later of my fiber beads.....I brought no camera with me.

So today I pulled the trigger - I plunked down a sizeable deposit on an AVL 40 Harness V-Series Compu-dobby Loom - Yikes!!! Double Yikes!!!  This decision was not made lightly though. I've been thinking about buying a compudobby for a few years. So this new addition to the studio will be ready around August - plenty of time to move things around and out of the studio to make room for it.  The software will be arriving soon so I can be learning that while waiting for the loom.

So tomorrow morning I head home after breakfast..........and the required stop at Trader Joe's in Eugene. Sam and Bailey have been holding down the fort at home..........

The weekend started Friday morning by heading up to Salem with my friend Kathy for the annual ANWG meeting (Association of Northwest Weavers Guilds), Kathy is our guild rep. Meeting was Saturday, business in the morning, couple of interesting speakers in the afternoon. I was memorized by Jeanne Carver of the Imperial Stock Ranch in Central Oregon - truly inspiring story about keeping the ranch traditions alive and substainable. Check out their site. They do give tours by appointment, if I'm over in the area I will definitely plan on one.

After the meeting we took a side trip to Sisters for the rest of Saturday and Sunday before heading home last night. We checked out a fellow weaver's Louet Megado Loom - yes, I'm still comptemplating a  compu-dobby loom and since I've seen this one it has moved up to the top of the list over the AVL. I just need to figure out how to fit it in the studio, it's got a bigger footprint. With the what little time we had in Sisters we visited the Stitchin Post Quilt Shop, numerous galleries and the Sisters Summer Faire that had some nice craft booths. And of course, on the way home a stop in Bend at Trader Joe's and then pie at Becky's Cafe in Union Creek, a spot not to be missed if in the Crater Lake or Diamond Lake area.

Now to play catch up around here - busy week with spinning get-together, a guild board meeting, preparing for a presentation here at my studio for a local PEO group and a drop spindle class at Middleford Yarn in Medford......if anyone signed up!

It's been too long..........

It's been way too long since my last post - I've been traveling and overwhelmed with things I've needed to get done here at home (which are still not done!). I'll post some pictures later - they're still on the two cameras.

We left in the RV on May 23rd for Big Fork, MT - what a long trek - two long days of traveling. Spent time visiting with family, seeing the town and a trip to Glacier........but we couldn't go far in Glacier, Going to the Sun Road was still closed due to high snow drifts on top of an avalanche that wiped out part of the road. My big thing was to have a moose siting - I would have settled for a mountain goat, big horned sheep or grizzley but we saw none! But at Costco in Kalispell who was in line next to me but Jack Hanna - he's much cuter in person, so I had a Jack Hanna siting. The day before we drove past his compound on Flathead Lake which is within walking distance of relatives house. I really wanted to meet him but held back and gave him his privacy. I wonder who those cases of oranges & watermelons were for - some critters???

The 27th we hooked up the 5th wheel and were on our way to Gonzaga Univ in Spokane, WA for the ANWG (Assocation of Northwest Weaving Guilds) conference. I'm very glad my seminars were good (Woven & Knitted Devore, Shadow Weave with more than 2 Colors and Beaded Cardwoven Amulet Bags) or else I would have been very upset with traveling that far. The conference was very disorganized, the accomodations and food bad which made me very happy I was staying in the 5th wheel. I was very disappointed in the lack of vendors, but I suppose that was ok because it was so hot in the vendor hall I didn't want to spend much time there. And to top it all off it was unbearably hot inside the majority of the buildings including classrooms. A few bright spots - they did a nice job of the fashion show, the exhibit of guild booths was incredible, and I got to see a dear friend from Idaho.

We left early on May 31st heading to Leavenworth, WA. It's a little Bavarian town set in the mountains, mountains that look like the Alps. The majority of the shops and buildings were of Bavarian style but I was a bit sad it find most of them full of touristy stuff that could be bought anywhere. But the scenery was well worth the trip. We stayed at the Icicle River RV Resort, had a site right on the river, 10 feet from our door were class 3 rapids, the roar was deafening but we loved it. Lots of outdoor activities in Leavenworth - rafting, biking, horseback riding in the summer months; all types of skiing, snowmobiling, sled rides, etc in the winter. Lots of German restaurants too, I'm not a big fan but did enjoy one really good meal. Of course we had to stop for some German pastries, a lunch of typical German fare and big hot pretzels with over 15 different mustards to choose from for dipping. Oh and then there was the artisan chocolate shop!

June 3rd we packed up and headed off to University of Puget Sound in Tacoma WA. for the NWRSA conference (Northwest Regional Spinners Association) - Sam and Bailey stayed in the RV in Gig Harbor while I stayed on campus with my fiber friends. The conference was so much fun, but then I expected nothing else. My classes were great - cable knitting, long draw (spinning) and continental knitting. I brought handspun/handknit socks to hang on the sock line decorating the tennis pavillion where the spinning circles, vendors and exhibits were. I entered two items in the gallery and got a first place on each..........hmm, not sure who they were up against, never figured out the category. You can see them in earlier posts: Feb 12th Scotch Thistle Shawl and April 6th Streaming Leaves Scarf. I did win a door prize of some romney batts that I'll spin in the long draw to practice that technique.

It was a long trip but we had fun, way too long to be away from home and my studio. It's time to play catch up but would really love to just sit down and weave or dye some fiber.