Entertaining at home…

I spent a glorious weekend with my sisters “down the shore”, and if you are friends with me on facebook you will have seen all of those very cool photos of us having a Jersey shore experience.  This morning when I woke up I had a bunch of pictures in my inbox from Ann Marie Soto, extraordinary member of ASG, or the American Sewing Guild, editor of the former Notions Magazine, and luckily for us in the area, member of the North Jersey Chapter of the guild.  

A week ago Saturday, one of the ASG neighborhood groups, the Sewphisticates, who are primarily focused on clothing, chose a studio visit and trunk show with me for their September meeting.  A half dozen members crowded into my studio to have a look at what I do and where I work, and a peak into my “closet” of handwoven clothing.  We stood around the table, and I got rare photos of me actually talking and explaining and telling stories, and this morning Ann Marie sent them along.  They are colorful and fun and though I took not a single image the whole day, she captured some lovely ones.

We started in the studio, gathered around the couple of looms with stuff actually on them.  Few had any real weaving experience, so understanding how cloth was woven is an important piece of information if you sew.

We looked at yarn, the beginning of ideas for how my designs are planned.  These are all hand dyed wools and mohairs.  I’m itching to figure out something that will celebrate these colors.

I showed them some yardage, and of course, Chaos, draft available here, designed from some random skeins I had used as dye mops (soaking up leftover dye from another job) and included a warp chain made from a similar dyed “dye mop” skein ready for the next yardage on the loom.

I showed the Autumn Patchwork duster, along with Chaos, which had just returned from an exhibit in Tennessee.  The colors are pretty impressive when I look at them in this kind of photo.  When I’m working on something, I get too close to it, and don’t realize the bigger picture.

We all headed to my office, where I had another loom, with yardage using Noro Taiyo Lace as the weft, and I unrolled it for them to see the beautiful color gradations.  

Then we headed down to the dining room, where I had set up a half dozen Structo’s and gave them the basics of how thread interlacement works, plain weave vs. twill, and they were soon weaving away.  

We had lunch on the decks and by the pond, and then I showed a number of my garments so they could see construction and finishing techniques.  We had a wonderful time.  I was so thrilled for the opportunity to show off what I do all day, to have an excuse to actually get out of my pajamas and entertain.  The animals were adorable if a bit obnoxious, Ranger just didn’t know what to do with himself with all these ladies around!  Very large frozen marrow bones helped keep them outside for a good chunk of time…

Anyway, I’m appreciative of the lovely photos Ann Marie sent, and that I was actually around to be able to host a neighborhood group of the ASG.  They do some lovely field trips, and I was glad I could be one of them!

Heading to the Pacific Northwest at the end of the week!  

Stay tuned…