Sew much fun…

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun.

I’m usually drenched in weaverly things, since I mostly attend weaving conferences, but I’ve been fortunate the past four years to be able to participate in the American Sewing Guild’s annual conference. This year it was held in Washington, DC, actually Arlington, just a stone’s throw over the Potomac.  Since I could actually drive to this conference, it is really rare for me to drive to any conference, I proposed, in addition to all my other regular offerings, a class called “Weave your own Cloth”.  It was meant as an intro to shaft loom weaving.  I have slowly been acquiring a stash of small 8″ Structo looms, all in tolerable shape, and I actually had nine sewing machine enthusiasts sign up for the class.

However…

One of my nine Structo’s was sort of occupied with a piece I’ve been working on, actually the demo piece for the online class I have on Weavolution.com.  This piece is from the Weave a Memory class where I print an image on silk, cut it into strips and weave them back together. I had to finish the piece, pull the spools of warp off the hex beam, and disconnect the castle, keeping the warp and threaded castle intact, and then pop in a back up castle from an eight shaft version, and slip an apron on the hex beam in place of the spools.  That took a couple of hours.

Then I slowly took apart the nine little Structos’ that all live on top of the wall units in the guest room, and packed them securely into three large heavy suitcases.  I wanted to pay a porter heavily to get all this crap out of my car and up to my hotel room.

The class was delightful. Most had no previous weaving experience, or if they did, it was minimal and years ago.  It was the perfect size class.  I pre-wound warps, in two colors with stripes in the middle, and had them sley the reed and then thread the heddles, using a point twill and straight draw draft, so they’d see what happened when they wove plain weave and twill patterns.  I gave them a whole draft of various structures, and by the end of the day, they were weaving away.  It was an amazing amount to accomplish in an 8-5 day, not to mention the lighting was pretty bad, and we couldn’t get the tables high enough or the chairs low enough to make threading comfortable.  But they were all good sports.

I always feel bad that the little Structo’s aren’t for sale.  I wish there was a small loom like that still made that I could offer for a couple hundred dollars.  I’ll bet I could have sold them all.  And no.  Please no letters on how I should be teaching on a rigid heddle loom.  I have no interest in acquiring rigid heddle looms and teaching on them. I am a shaft loom weaver and I make cloth for garments.  These women were largely interested in weaving cloth potentially for garments.  Though they thought the dishtowels I showed them were pretty cool. (Still, to members of the sewing community, dishtowels are just small cuts of cotton).

At five o’clock we cut the samplers off the loom, and the results were lovely.  They all really got to see what structure is on the loom, and the relationship between the warp and the weft and what happens when you work in opposing colors.

I even had a couple of sisters take the class.

The next day I taught my standard “Weave Your Own Trim” class, but this year I redesigned the class to fit in a four hour format.  I had twenty sign up instantly.  The class was full basically from the start.  So I ordered a couple dozen Inklettes from Ashford, and put them all together.  Then I packed them into two additional suitcases.  I made up kits, with heddle cord, and three colors of warp.

Since the focus of this class was trim, I gave them all a couple lengths of bug tail, which is skinny rat tail, the rayon satin cord, and showed them how to float the supplemental cord on top, selecting specific groups of warps to hold it down.

Here is the jacket I made and used to inspire them to weave trim for Chanel Jackets.

I ended up selling 18 of the 20 Inklette looms.  In less than two days I got more than 30 people excited about weaving.  There must be some record there.  I had people stop me during meals and ask if I had any more looms to sell, and that their friend/roommate was up all night creating some really cool trim.  It is convenient to be able to tell them that I have pre-recorded online classes through Weavolution.com in additional techniques like Pick up and Paired Pebbles.

Saturday morning I taught a seminar on Photographing your Work.  I had thirty students in that class, and at the end, a couple of them came up and together told me that this class was worth the entire cost of the conference.  Wow.  That’s an incredible complement.  I’m grateful that the ASG selected the proposal in the first place.  I will eventually pre-record this class for Weavolution.com as well.

Saturday afternoon was the fashion show.  This year they actual did the show during lunch.  It was a whirlwind, but the format worked, and of course, since I was modeling, I have no photos to show you.  I’m hoping someone got a photo or two of me, and I’ll be able to add them later.

Sunday morning I taught a class on Color and Inspiration.  I love teaching this class.  Since it was only a two hour lecture, we didn’t really have time to play with hands on exercises, but I managed to squeak in some experiments with Color-Aid and magazines at the very end.  They were fun.

I’m finding more and more that there is a new kind of learning happening, since everyone owns some kind of technology, at least in a conference like this. As I teach, give references to URL’s and websites, and mention terms, and equipment, many of the students are rapidly pulling up websites, and equipment references, and terms and googling things as fast as I give the information.  It is sort of fun in a way.  By the time the class was over, one of the students had already purchased and downloaded Ann Dixon’s new Inkle Pattern Directory.  Apparently it is available as an e-b00k.  I hadn’t realized that since I own the hard cover and showed it in class.  Another had already signed up for one of my online classes.  It certainly keeps you on your toes.  Your information has to be accurate and sources have to be available.  I feel as though the ways I’ve done things as a fiber enthusiast and a teacher for the last 30-40 years are rapidly becoming obsolete and are being replaced by rapidly changing technology.  It was really great to be demonstrating how to do a technique and have a  dozen tablets and cell phones pushed towards your hands.  It used to bother me if people recorded what I was showing, but really, there is no stopping this trend, and anything that helps get people enthusiastic and weaving or sewing, or anything else that involves the hands, I’m not getting in the way.

I was able to take a half dozen seminars myself during this conference.  I actually learned a couple of things.  Or new ways of looking at things I already knew.  And I love watching how other teachers teach.  I learn so much about what to do, and definitely what NOT to do. 🙂

So today, I did my banking, filled half a dozen orders for books, and pattern paper, made tomato sauce from a counter full of vine ripe tomatoes, unpacked, did my laundry, tidied up my kitchen, planted the lettuces for a fall crop, and actually took some time this evening to play on my alto recorder.  It was lovely to just sit and create sound.

Tomorrow I start the process of printing and packing for my next venue, starting Friday at Peters Valley Craft Center in northwestern NJ.  Another venue where I can drive.  🙂

Stay tuned…

FYI, the ASG conference will be held next year, the end of July, in St. Louis, MO.